Producer Responsibility Organisations or Collective Organisations may be pompous words for the man in the street. They are a group of companies or traders that import electrical and electronic equipment to Malta and are eventually responsible for the end-of-life of the products they import and place on the market.
While most companies are in business to sell, they fork out this legislative responsibility of collecting, dismantling, treating and final recycling to a third party, which is called a PRO (Producer Responsibility Organisation) authorised by the Environment and Resources Authority.
There are two PROs in Malta which together have over 700 importers and producers as members.
The PROs are obliged by law to collect 65 per cent of whatever is declared by their producers as having been placed on the market in the preceding three years.
The WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive in Malta was transposed into law in 2007 through LN 63 of 2007 but was not implemented until September 1, 2015.
In an article entitled ‘WEEE responsibility’, published by Times of Malta on May 23, 2009, Carmel Cacopardo, then spokesman for sustainability for the Green Party, outlined the following:
“By failing to revisit the eco contribution regime, the government is obstructing business from moving on to shoulder its producer responsibilities. Further procrastination will not make matters any easier. It is in everybody’s interest that business conforms to its WEEE responsibilities, and for that to happen the government must get out of the way.”
The cardinal words here are “the government must get out of the way”.
Between 2007 and 2015 the government continued to rake in millions from the infamous Eco Contribution regime. It was eight full years of non-compliance to EU legislation. The Eco Contribution with respect to EEE (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) was shredded to bits by 2016 and PROs could implement the EU directive.
In today’s scenario, the PROs should have the authority to collect at the end of their life these white or brown goods, technically called WEEE. Malta lacks the correct legislation in place so that PROs can actually shoulder this responsibility.
At present, WEEE is collected door-to-door from each local council at a cost to the council. Independent of the cost results, the fact is that a significant amount of the equipment collected goes to unauthorised facilities while there is a legal obligation for the waste carrier to take it to a civic amenity site.
The council outlines at which site the disposal needs to take place. It also advises the ERA (Environment and Resources Authority), through a consignment note procedure, of the date of the collection and the material.
Even with this in place, a substantial amount of the material is not found on the doorstep. Some carriers take material to their own yards and segregate goods (scavenging) that have a financially positive value.
The government just does not want to upset local councils or regions in any way- Joe Attard
To explain, a fridge has a financially negative value as it has ingrained gases and, so, every fridge collected ends up at Wasteserv or at either one of the authorised PROs.
As a PRO, in the first six months of 2024 we collected 67 per cent of fridges placed on the market. WEEE Malta on its own has over 2,000 tons of air conditioners placed on the market by its producer members. The collection total amounts to under 100 tons between those disposed at Wasteserv and those collected by the PRO.
Most end-of-life air conditioners are traded in a rampant illegal market. Just a few days ago, the police took to court an individual who was caught selling three compressors from air conditioners.
It is easy for a government to make a PRO shoulder responsibility through legislation, without giving it authority. We, as a PRO, have our legal limits. The government must get out of the way if it wants to see results.
PROs do not exceed 30 per cent collection rates when the legislation states 65 per cent is required for compliance. It is already a tremendous target if we had the authority but, without this, it is impossible.
And in this scenario the government had the audacity to issue ‘Orders of Conformity’ for the years 2016 and 2017 to both PROs when operations had just started in September 2015 and targets were not reached in subsequent years.
We can easily be sitting ducks in such a scenario. It might suit us. But we are here for change, change for the better, change to set up better systems for our communities at large. Change to ascertain that local councils do not pay a cent for collection of end-of-life WEEE.
The government needs to sit down with PROs and discuss the terms of getting out of the way. We never shy away from our responsibilities.
As it stands, Malta will continue to be at the bottom of the table when it comes to
WEEE collection results. PROs in Malta are members of the WEEE Forum, an umbrella organisation of 52 PROs from over 40 countries in Europe and beyond.
We have, for endless months, discussed the national collection of WEEE from all local councils by the PROs. While the government agrees that this is the right direction, it wants the PROs to discuss either with regional councils or with individual local councils – the usual voluntary approach that ends nowhere.
That is surely not the way. The government just does not want to upset local councils or regions in any way and continues to sit pretty on the periphery.
It is time for the government to let go completely. Otherwise, whatever it says about the subject is just paying lip service to the public.
Joe Attard is the chief executive officer of WEEE Malta.