The wine industry collects over 90 per cent of the bottles it sells, reusing them time and again, surpassing foreign companies by a whopping 87 per cent.

"Malta does have an advantage. In a small country, distances are small. It is relatively easy to collect returned, empty bottles," according to George Delicata, managing director of Delicata Winemakers.

"But in larger countries, returns are a lot more difficult: sending a truck from Milan to pick up bottles from Bari, for example, could end up using more energy and generating more CO2 than recycling in a local plant."

Mr Delicata emphasised that the Maltese wine industry as a whole was achieving this degree of reuse. Annual consumption stood at about 20 litres a head.

Local consumers were drinking a wider variety, with the floodgates now wide open to importation. But Malta's winemakers were holding their own well, regaining market share after an initial hit when import levies were removed, he said.

The value of glass bottles - and the benefits that may not be immediately obvious - was great. Malta had a long tradition of returning bottles for reuse, a tradition that was possibly being undermined by the introduction of plastic bottles.

"This is one area where Maltese can be world leaders. We should not throw this away," Mr Delicata concluded.