Getting up and running with recycling

There are several ways you can dispose of packaging waste. The relevant EU directive requires packaging to be recovered from the waste stream for further treatment. This could mean anything from recycling to composting to recovery of energy through controlled burning (incinerating) of waste. Of course before any of these options are chosen the most obvious and environment friendly is reuse as in refillable containers.

The environment lobby tends to bristle at the lumping of all systems under the heading of recovery. They view incineration as the black sheep with no place among the herd of more environment-friendly remedies for waste management.

The Malta Institute of Waste Management (MIWM) believes the future incineration of municipal waste can be deflected if other methods of recovering packaging from the waste stream are fully explored in time to avert this expensive technology. The institute last week organised a two-day Malta-Germany workshop on implementing the notoriously difficult EU Directive on Packaging Waste together with the Malta Federation of Industry (FOI) and Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure.

The MIWM holds that to meet the packaging directive, certain types of packaging waste must be eliminated. The institute may well prove to be the catalyst for different sectors of industry to form waste minimisation clubs, sharing examples and providing each other with raw material from recycling. Bulebel and Mosta industrial estates have been foremost in efforts to start recycling and it is hoped others will follow.

Besides the plastic, metal, paper, carton and glass waste from shops or food and beverage establishments which may end up in our dustbins there is more. Packaging waste can range from jablo (polystyrene) used in transport to packages or bottles of supplies reaching offices and factories. Reusable models such as plastic pallets made from recycled plastic are being used in Europe to reduce packaging waste from the transport sector. Tyres and finely crushed glass from bottles, window glass, television screens and light bulbs can be used in road making.

Plastic is difficult and expensive to recycle. McDonald's in Germany have replaced their polystyrene take-away containers with cardboard ones. The FOI notes that in countries where there is a high percentage rate of plastic waste recovery it is mostly sent for energy recovery via incineration. IBEC representing the business community in Ireland poses that incineration and recycling can co-exist without one being too much of a threat to the other.

The FOI is yet to be convinced over the economic feasibility of recycling as a comprehensive solution for the packaging waste it produces. With inland transport charges in Malta among the highest in Europe the FOI perceives the steep cargo handling fees as nothing less than a grant for port workers creating a disincentive to recycling efforts by industry. It is the FOI's view that part of the solution to the packaging waste problem could include the introduction of a deposit system and an eco-label on plastic and other packaging.

Member states are required by the directive to encourage the use of materials obtained from the recycling of packaging waste (e.g. shredded plastic bottles) for manufacturing of other products including packaging itself. In countries where compliance schemes cover all packaging waste and not just household waste, the system works out cheaper.

The directive will oblige Malta to recover by 2007 at least half of our waste and half of that must be recycled with the rest reused, composted or incinerated. One year after Malta complies the targets for recycling and recovery are expected to go up again requiring further efforts to adapt.

On the verge of collapse

In the late Eighties Germany's waste system was on the verge of collapse with hopelessly overfilled landfills threatening a catastrophe. A turnaround only came about as a result of the introduction of producer responsibility and the joint commitment of politicians, industry and consumers. Today Germany is a world leader in recycling technology as well as incineration systems. Incineration of packaging waste is not accepted in some localities in Germany. If the waste is exported for recycling there must be proof that it is not being burnt in another country.

Fifteen speakers shared their experience and gave examples to Malta through the help of German association. Workshop organiser ITUT is a promoter of international environmental technology transfer. Portugal, Germany and Czech Republic gave examples of their own, often different, solutions to the problem of packaging waste through the Green Dot scheme.

As an EU accession country the Czech Republic adopted a packaging act earlier this year and formed an industrial coalition for packaging and environment which promised Government it would create pilot projects to provide information on the breakdown of waste and methods of collection. Czech customs now make a note of what packaging materials are entering the country.

In the Azores and Madeira, as with Malta, tourism brings a lot of extra waste. A new use was found on the islands for collected tin cans in the flower industry.

The directive includes limiting hazardous substances such as lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium in packaging waste. If the waste is kept out of the environment or diverted from landfill and incineration by containing it in a closed cycle of recycling then these levels do not apply.

The declared preference within Europe's and Malta's waste strategies is recycling over technologies which bind communities to long term incineration. The last resort after these options, in their prescribed order, have been exhausted, is landfill. So the directive calls for recycling to avoid incineration and incineration to avoid landfill, the least desirable option as seen by the rest of Europe and certainly for a small island nation. There should be no shortcuts.

Meeting the targets

With only three years to adapt, Malta must now make a speedy transition to fully upgrade waste management to European standards. By contrast Germany has had a head start of around three decades.

Germany's first waste law in 1972 was aimed at closing rubbish tips and replacing them with properly controlled and regulated landfills. As stronger waste policies on avoidance and recovery were introduced in 1986 it was becoming more and more difficult to find land for landfills and incineration plants. Yet waste was on the increase.

Germany became the first country in Europe to react to rising volumes of waste and a simultaneous lack of landfill capacity. The German Packaging Ordinance was put into place, four years ahead of the directive at EU level. In the early years Germany found that it was collecting more recyclable waste than could be recycled. The 1994 directive seeks to correct this by harmonising national measures for the whole waste system in all its member states. This does not mean that the solutions in one country will necessarily provide the correct answers to another country's problems.

Economically speaking, the directive aims first of all to ensure that restrictions on packaging do not create barriers to trade. Environmentally this has turned out to be a loss for Malta as we must eventually repeal the existing law for soft drinks to be bottled in glass. (The Commission has also challenged Finland's levies on non-refillable beverage containers which it believes discriminates against importers.)

Since our hot summers and taste for sugary drinks result in a high rate of beverage consumption, the amount of plastic bottles ending up in the waste stream could increase by up to 86 million each year after the barriers come down.

The EU says free trade must be protected and Malta can find other ways of addressing the problem of packaging waste. The other aim of the Packaging Waste Directive is to reduce the overall impact of this waste on the environment. Government says it will not remove the ban until a new environment-friendly bottling regime is introduced but this must be in place by 2007. It was noted that the Maltese wine industry had been moving away from trading in refillable bottles.

The directive which is European law says that member states must set up systems for return (bottle deposit schemes), collection (recycling bins), reuse (quarries for resuable stone) or recovery of energy (incineration).

Domestic waste is produced in greater quantities than household waste but indirectly industry is at least partly responsible for as much as a third of our waste which is made up of the packaging that comes with all kinds of products. Industry does not see the possible future introduction of an eco-tax on waste as a financial incentive to reduce or recycle. An eco-tax as a pure fiscal tax would fail to stimulate or target recycling, says the FOI.

Shared responsibility

Compliance schemes are non-profit and run by industry independent of the state or waste management companies. Their role is to co-ordinate recovery and recycling activities. Producers, importers and fillers are awarded the right to display the Green Dot registered trademark on their product once they begin to contribute a percentage of their profit to the running of this waste management system.

A national system for reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering waste must be set up by voluntary agreement between industry which packages the product, users who buy and unwrap the product and the authorities. The consumer would participate voluntarily through separation of waste in the home or taking glass, paper, tins etc to recycling bins.

The Green Dot system would act as a financial incentive, directing industry toward friendlier packaging since using plastic packaging would cost more in licensing fees than a friendlier material like carton or glass. However the fee is automatically lowered if recyling targets are met. Industry can choose to join the scheme and make a financial contribution to the collection or opt to go it alone and be obliged to take back the packaging it produces with the obligation to recycle or recover it at a greater cost.

Even those outside the scheme will be obliged to see that their packaging conforms to European standards since the state will be bound to disallow any packaging on the market which does not meet the directive requirements. Measures are in hand to clamp down on "free-riders" - those industries which benefit from the system but fail to contribute to it. Joining the Green Dot scheme also exempts the producer from sole responsibility for packaging waste.

Speakers from four of the 15 Green Dot countries inside and outside Europe with this type of service provider for waste management explained the successful operations of the system. In Austria recycling outfits are owned by industry to supply recyclable packaging materials as cheaply as possible.

The Pro-Europe (Packaging Recovery Organisation) is the central body responsible for authorisation of Green Dot schemes and lobbies the European Parliament on behalf of the industries that support it. A task force has been set up within Pro-Europe to carry out surprise checks on recovery facilities to ensure they are not incinerating packaging waste which was meant to be recycled.

A national compliance system such as Green Dot is essential to meet the directive's requirement to provide a database on waste. This is necessary to enable member states and the EU Commission to monitor how well the directive is being implemented. Figures must be provided on how much glass, plastic, paper, metal and wood was reused and how much landfilled. Figures for both waste recycled and waste incinerated are to be recorded together under the heading of recovery.

Local councils also need to be targeted with recycling performance objectives. When asked about recycling targets the St Paul's Bay, Mellieha, St Julian's, Sliema, Marsaxlokk, and Valletta councils all said that they could reach the directive's minimum 15 per cent easily.

Labelling

Another requirement for obeying the directive is that member states must inform consumers about return and collection systems and their role in contributing to reuse and recycling of packaging waste. Producers may choose whether to label their packaging with waste data but must use the prescribed codes and abbreviations (e.g. HDPE for High Density Polyethylene) and allow easily identification by number to make sorting different types of waste easier. Products packaged in a material which is difficult to recycle would cost more so consumers would be more attracted to the product which costs less and costs the environment less.

The directive is to be revised in 2008 when targets will be amended and issues of producer responsibility and enforcement of reuse will further be addressed. Industry should find that recycling waste is more profitable than landfilling or incinerating waste.

The government-appointed waste management services company invites the private sector to share waste responsibilities. If the necessary response from industry is not forthcoming then Government will be forced to step in and take over with a waste management services company. The company does not intend to compete with a co-operating private sector but will operate as a privately owned company to deal with building waste and the overseeing contracts for all other waste.

Progett Skart within the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure is responsible for implementation of the Malta Waste Management Strategy and would like to see industry exploring how to better design or change packaging and get involved in research programmes. There is money to be saved through recycling and industry's first target should be zero waste to landfill. Waste contractors are also the industrialist's responsibility. Progett Skart offers monitoring of the waste contractor service.

If the EU directive on packaging waste targets are not met the country will be bound to pay financial penalties while accepting the environmental penalties of failure to co-operate over clean waste management. The immediate direction ahead must be made clearer in order to prepare us for the challenge ahead.

Maltese firms taking the initiative to recycle waste for use in Malta or export:

Cutrico Ltd, Birkirkara (glass)

C & V Polymers, Marsa (plastic)

Metalco Ltd, Balzan (metal)

Gasparell, Birzebbuga (metal)

Karta Converters Ltd Corradino (paper)

J.D.F. Trading, Fleur de Lys (paper and textiles)