GreenPak Coop said 2016 was its best year yet. This success follows increases in its membership base as well as increases in the tonnage of packaging waste collected and recycled. Last year also marked the first full year of GreenPak operation in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) scheme.

In the last quarter of 2016 GreenPak also launched BATREE, its battery waste collection and recycling scheme. All this activity, together with efficient operations, led to GreenPak declaring the highest surplus to date.

During the AGM held at Kooperattivi Malta in Qormi, GreenPak’s president Victor Galea said its members had declared “20,381 tons of packaging waste placed on the market, of which more than 13,200 tons were recycled”.

The amount exceeded the minimum national target set at 55 per cent. Mr Galea said GreenPak should be proud of this achievement and added that in its first year of operating the WEEE scheme, GreenPak had collected 568 tons of the 3,990 tons of electronic waste declared by its members.

GreenPak is conscious of Malta’s waste management road map

“The GreenPak Cooperative model is working well and GreenPak members should be proud to form part of this co-operative.”

“The 2016 operations has yielded the highest surplus of funds generated to date. The surplus equating to 32 per cent of fees paid will be distributed to the co-operative shareholders as patronage refunds,” Mr Galea added. The financial results of GreenPak were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

GreenPak’s gradual increase in packaging waste recycling year after year.

CEO Mario Schembri said: “GreenPak strengthened its leadership in waste recovery as the cooperative continued to develop three areas of activities, namely packaging waste, WEEE and the BATREE schemes.” Mr Schembri said that over the next two years GreenPak’s bring-in sites’ infrastructure would be upgraded while by the end of this year more than 500 battery recycling points would be available across Malta and Gozo.

Mr Schembri added that GreenPak was committed to improving its existing collection systems, citing as an example the fact that within a short time of the BATREE scheme launch, 200 collection bins in schools, shops, supermarkets and local councils were available to the public to dispose of their used batteries. By the end of 2017, GreenPak targets having 500 battery collection points available.

“Looking ahead, GreenPak is conscious of Malta’s waste management road map and the ongoing changes in EU waste regulations. The landscape around us keeps changing yet we are  confident  and determined to provide Maltese companies with the best solution to fulfil their extended producer responsibility,” Mr Schembri added.

GreenPak’s elected new committee board is composed of Mr Galea, executive director of V. J. Salomone Marketing Ltd, Denis Zammit Cutajar, CEO of P. Cutajar & Co Ltd, Edward von Brockdorff, director of Von Brockdorff Imports Ltd, Pierre Fava, CEO of Kemimport Ltd, Brian Galea, general manager at GSD Marketing Ltd, Lionel Cassola, company secretary of G. A. Enterprises Ltd, Norman Aquilina, group chief executive at Farsons, and Peter Martin, director at Attard & Co Food Ltd.

During the AGM, PwC were re-appointed auditors.