A public consultation to address the issue of junk mail is in the pipeline, Environment Minister Leo Brincat announced today.

The issue of an excessive amount of unwanted mail, he said, could not be tackled overnight as it impacted on various stakeholders, he said.

Mr Brincat pointed out that the previous government had introduced a measure in the 2009 budget to address this problem, but it as subsequently not implemented. No further steps were taken since then.

(The then government had proposed a 1 cent tax on every 80g of paper delivered for free on a door-to-door basis. However this was only to apply if more than half of the publication's contents consisted of adverts. Magazines handed out for free in newspapers were also be subject to this tax.)

Mr Brincat made this announcement during the launch of a lottery aimed to raise awareness on hazardous waste by encouraging people to take spent light bulbs to civic amenity sites. According to a recent study carried out by WasteServ only 17 per cent of Maltese are aware that that bulbs are considered as hazardous rubbish. 43 per cent dispose of them in black garbage bags used for mixed domestic waste.

Through this initiative people disposing of light bulbs at civic amenity sites will be given lottery tickets.

A similar initiative has already been launched for plastic bottles, resulting in the collection of some a million bottles.