A record €21,000 were raised through Green Pak’s Nirriċikla għall-Istrina recycling initiative that saw a 18 million plastic bottle caps collected throughout this year.

This campaign in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund’s annual Boxing Day charity event saw the participation of 132 schools and 62 local councils, as well as the contribution of clubs, companies and other entities.

Green Pak cooperative CEO Mario Schembri said: “This is the eighth edition of the initiative and we laud the contribution of all those who recognised its environmental importance by contributing to those most in need.

“This year a record 55,300 kilograms of plastic bottle caps were retrieved, which would have otherwise ended up in the landfill causing untold damage to the environment.”

Billions of plastic bottles and containers are sold each day and the bottle caps end up in the sea or washed up on beaches.

Organised under the patronage of the President, the campaign sees Green Pak donate the money made from recycling all the bottle caps collected from schools, councils, bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels and other businesses to the MCCF.

The school that collected the largest amount of caps per student is the Gozo College San Lawrenz Primary School, which succeeded in collecting an average of 59kg of plastic caps per student.