From our online comments board

BCRS chief on faulty machines, long queues and making a profit

The logic of BCRS is really baffling. A company making losses but still forces us to waste time and fuel to find a machine that is working. Now they want shops to take the bottles and pay us. Why not just let us throw the bottles in the grey bag in the first place, as we did before? And where does the money paid on unreturned bottles go to? – Natalino Fenech

Why do they never mention that the vouchers issued by a reverse vending machine outside an outlet can only be used at that same outlet (you cannot use a voucher issued at, for example, LIDL at some other supermarket)? – Joseph Schembri

The reality is that there is lack of proper investment on the collection side of the scheme. – R. Tonna

So if BCRS is a loss-making venture, why is it still around? It has little labour costs, as we, the ordinary peasants, do all the collection work for them, 24/7, sun, wind and rain, in mostly horrid and smelly conditions – and for free – just to get our 10c a bottle tax back! Thank you not! – Assenzio Bianco

Tourism overload? That’s a predictable challenge in Malta. If BCRS can’t handle the basics, why should we trust them to fix the constant breakdowns and rejections?

What a lazy excuse. This scheme is riddled with flaws. – Alessia Caruana

Rain or shine people queue at BCRS machines. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Invest in a reverse osmosis system. Believe me, it saved my soul! BCRS were going to send me to hell. – Antoine Debono

The system is absolute shambles. A rip-off and impractical! As a consumer (like many), I’ve simply come to the point in not purchasing goods making use of this rotten system in the first place. I wonder if beverage manufacturers in this scheme have made a study on how their sales have been impacted. – J. Borg

If BCRS was a proper commercial company offering such an abysmal service it would have folded. The admission that the service cannot keep up in summer is evidence of poor planning and gross incompetence. Tourism has been around for 40 years and the trends are known. But with a system where failing is profitable there is hardly any incentive to improve.

This system is costing us time away from our families, creating frustration to a population already on the edge.

The machine logs should be presented to a quality control entity and a service level agreement be put in place where system downtime costs at least what it costs the customers, and that should be €1,000 per hour. Have accountability, then we will see who is laughing.

Pajjiż ta’ kwalità medjokri! – Michael Gatt

This country has become an expert when it comes to excuses!

Blaming the mass tourism is just a lame excuse. Didn’t he know that we always have this flow of tourists in summer? If not, where was he living? – David Buttigieg

I stopped reading after the first sentence. Is it not logical that in summer people consume more drinks? They know; I was in the trade. Sales peak from July 15 to August 15, and that is why they stock water months before. – Victor Bonello

Come on, does Alan Meilak think tourists waste time on these machines to get the 10c refund? What a stupid assertion! One way of avoiding queues is that all machines take plastic bottles and cans, not just one out of four. Otherwise, scrap the whole system and dispose cans and bottles in the grey bag as before. But I am sure this won’t happen as there are profits involved, not as he is stating. – Alex Coppola