Waste collection operators engaged by local councils have been accused by a competitor of mixing waste so as to keep their prices low.

In a judicial protest against WasteServ Malta Ltd, the director of local government, and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, GreenLines Environmental Services Ltd called on the authorities to curb this abuse which, they claimed, was causing them to lose tenders, and said they were holding the authorities responsible.

GreenLines said that since last year it has been noting that various operators were submitting extremely low offers to tenders, which were mathematically inconceivable when it came to expenses.

This was especially so in light of subsidiary legislation which established rates applicable for use of landfills.

GreenLines said that from an examination of offers, it transpired that the operators who were already engaged by councils for the collection of waste were the ones submitting the lowest offers.

This made it clear that their tactic involved the mixing of domestic waste collected on behalf of the councils with private waste collected on behalf of private entities.

In this manner, these operators placed themselves in a position where they could offer ridiculously low and anti-competitive prices whenever there was a call for tenders.

This was so because the use of landfills for public waste collected on behalf of councils did not attract the same fee as landfills for private waste.

So if an operators masked private waste as public, the rates would drop drastically allowing such operator the opportunity to render his services to public entities at ridiculously low prices.

This tactic, GreenLines said, was extremely prejudicial to operators who, like themselves, chose not to abuse the system.

Lawyers Franco Vassallo and Jimmie John Vella signed the protest.