The Environment Ministry is proposing a national schedule for waste collection, effectively standardising the days when different waste streams are collected.

Currently, the days when grey (recycling) and black (mixed) waste are collected vary from one locality to another. Collection days for organic waste are already standardised across the country. 

Having a national schedule would mean that days for different waste collection would be the same across Malta and Gozo, making it more practical for everyone to recycle efficiently.

The government also intends to recycle paper separately from plastic and metal by 2023, urging people to take out their paper waste in boxes. This is part of efforts to create "better quality recyclate".

Nine-year waste plan

On Tuesday, Minister Aaron Farrugia announced 130 measures as part of a nationwide nine-year plan to create a circular economy, where waste generation is brought down to a minimum and transformed into energy.

Farrugia said families will still be able to leave their garbage bags on the pavement, but waste collection will be planned on a regional level and with an investment in cleaner and more efficient garbage trucks.

These measures will go into effect after discussions with local councils, which are currently in charge of tendering for garbage collection.

Black bag waste collection to be reduced

The plans forsee no changes to organic waste collection, which will still be collected three times a week. Glass collection, which occurs once monthly, will also remain unchanged. 

Plastic and metal will be collected once a week, with a separate weekly collection for paper recyclable waste. 

A key change forseen, however, will be with mixed (black bag) waste. This will be collected a maximum of two times a week, in an effort to discourage people from accumulating such waste. Black bags are currently collected three times a week in many localities.  

Single-use plastics to be banned from January

Farrugia also reaffirmed that after banning the importation of single-use plastics last January, Malta will now ban their sale from this coming January.

The ban will apply to products such as plastic bags, cutlery, straws, plates, cotton buds, food containers, and stirrers.

Farrugia insisted that Malta needs to move from a linear economy, where products are used and discarded into the sea and the environment, to a circular econony, where all the waste goes back into the economy in the form of energy.

Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia. Photo: DOI/Kevin Abela

"We are in the process of constructing a state-of-the-art Waste to Energy plant which will divert waste away from landfills and transform it into electricity," the Minister said.

The Long Term Waste Management plan (2021-2030) was published after an extensive period of public consultation. ERA deputy director Kevin Mercieca and ministry Director of the Directorate for the Environment and Climate Change Ruth Debrincat said that the measures are tailor-made for the Maltese scenario.

The plan also includes four reuse centres, repair centres and swap shops spread across the islands.