Recycling of waste is proving to be extremely difficult for Malta. While there's lots of talk about a door-to-door separate collection of recyclable materials, so far there's very little by way of concrete results. This is no surprise when one considers Malta's record in the environmental field.
Compared to the EU 25, Malta dramatically lags behind in its ability to put waste recycling on track. Being part of the EU, Malta is obliged to recycle various types of waste fractions and report its performance to the EU. So far, no formal reporting on recycling has been made to the Commission by Malta.
Waste recycling fractions include organic materials such as food remains, packaging of products, all kinds of electrical appliances, including electronic toys and computers, scrapped cars, batteries and many other products. Added to these EU-established waste streams, Malta has included a few waste streams of its own such as the recycling of at least 40 per cent of its construction and demolition waste and the recycling of waste oils and tyres.
One could argue that as a small island nation we are excused for lagging behind on our environmental performance when compared to other countries. That may be the case had we tried hard enough but, ultimately, still ended up being unsuccessful. In truth, however, we repeatedly continue to mistake the wood for the trees and, as has so eloquently been put, too many cooks keep getting involved ending messing up the broth.
Supposedly straightforward issues keep getting unnecessarily complicated, as the fundamental principles for waste recycling keep getting confused.
Originally referred to as the polluter pays principle, the main driver for establishing economic waste recycling is the creation of producer responsibility. The idea of polluters paying for the damage caused to the environment seems obvious, although, in practice, this means little more than a tax levied on products. Malta already has a range of eco taxes and even though these have been in place for a number of years there is no marked improvement in our ability to recycle waste.
The establishment of producer responsibility, on the other hand, makes companies an integral part of the solution. When companies are made responsible for the final treatment of a given product as it reaches the end of its life, they actively seek to trade products that are less "polluting". More importantly, as final disposal is part of their responsibility, companies actively find ways to recycle their products at the least cost possible, thus providing consumers with a reasonably-priced product that is also environmentally sound.
Whether companies are in importation or manufacture, they are required by the laws of Malta to recycle packaging generated by their activity. In 2005, GreenPak, a Maltese not-for-profit organisation, established a scheme to help companies realise their producer responsibility.
The organisation runs a packaging recovery scheme modelled on the Green Dot concept. The scheme allows companies to pay a fee depending on the amounts of packaging generated and the money is used to recycle discarded packaging. In the first months of its operation, GreenPak prevented over 1.6 million kilogrammes from being landfilled at Magħtab.
As the scheme continues to gain popularity within the Maltese business community and economies of scale start taking effect, GreenPak has for 2008 reduced its fees by 30 per cent, thanks to its not-for-profit policy.
Although since 2004 all Maltese companies are legally bound to recycle the packaging generated by their trade, there exists very little enforcement. While the government keeps promising to refund those companies which are actively financing the recovery of their waste, it has so far sat on its hands.
The government has also established that any company that is participating in a scheme, such as the GreenPak scheme, will be immediately exempted from the payment of eco tax. So far, the government has failed to act upon either of these promises. Instead, it continues to interfere with the functioning of the free market.
As has been recently reported, the government has agreed to "fix" the price of rubbish collection to double the price that it is today. It is also dictating that collection of recyclables should be made on one specific date and this day alone. It is also imposing that we make use of just "the one bag" given out from local council offices. All these government actions seem very odd in a modern and free market.
In today's EU dimension, the government's role is to actively promote and encourage free trade. Once the government allows the market forces to take root, then, yes, there will be efficient and economic recycling of waste. Otherwise, we will continue to have state-managed expensive experiments.
Ing. Schembri is promoter of the GreenPak scheme in Malta.