On April 6, Godwin C. Micallef, chairman of the FOI Environment Committee, was invited to give a presentation on 'Packaging and Packaging Waste' to second-year students of the Faculty of Law at the University of Malta.
His presentation gave details of the packaging used by the locally-based manufacturing sector, the recycling and disposal of its packaging waste, and the use of plastics in packaging.
During his presentation, Mr Micallef also gave the FOI's views on the eco-contribution and the federation's involvement in the eco-contribution commission. Mr Micallef emphasised that there is no level playing field on packaging and packaging waste, as industry is treated differently from importers and other users.
He explained that industry has the highest percentage of recovered packaging waste by managing to reduce, reuse and recycle most of its packaging waste.
In his conclusions, Mr Micallef said: "The challenge to industry will be to satisfy the demands of marketing while maintaining cost-effectiveness and reducing the environmental impact of packaging waste".