Ten new larger BCRS machines, capable of accepting bottles in bulk, are expected to be installed in the coming months in a bid to increase convenience in the deposit return scheme. 

Circular Economy Malta CEO Jason Vella said one such machine has already been installed in Ħal Far, with the operator working on planning permits for the others in key locations around the Maltese islands, expected to be installed by the beginning of summer. 

He was speaking at a technical briefing about the country's progress and future plans for waste management, organised by the Environment Ministry 

Despite the BCRS scheme still being in its early stages, with the machines going live on November 14 last year, the operators have been collecting an average of 300,000 bottles every day, with the figure climbing to around half a million containers on several occasions, Vella said. 

"People are accepting the scheme and making use of the machines. If things keep going in this direction, the targets that have been set for the first year of operation will very likely be reached," he said. 

Circular Economy Malta CEO Jason Vella. Photo: DOI

Enforcement personnel has been doubled - ERA CEO 

Environment Resources Authority CEO Kevin Mercieca said that the authority was placing a greater emphasis on enforcement, particularly with mandatory waste separation coming into effect next month. 

Enforcement staff had been doubled last year, with inspections increasing from 4,000 in 2021 to around 5,000 in 2022. 

An inspection, he clarified, involves two members of staff doing the rounds along a set route during a shift, which takes the better part of half a day to complete. 

Of the 5,000 inspection carried out last year, illegalities had been found and penalised on 700 occasions. 

"Right now we are focusing on a warning system as a means of educating the public on how they should take out their bags for waste separation," he said. 

"A first-time offender will be cautioned but the warning will be recorded in a system. The second time an offender is caught, they will have to pay the fine." 

Mercieca also said that for the first time, the amount of construction waste that was recycled outnumbered the amount that was dumped into backfilled quarries. 

The ERA, he said, is working diligently to convert waste management strategies from paper to action and with efforts such as banning single-use plastics, a leap in permits for recycling facilities, shifting waste collection to facilitate waste separating for households and accompanying enforcement, more favourable outcomes are on the horizon. 

"Don't expect the situation to flip instantly," Mercieca said. 

"But we expect these efforts to yield good results." 

Chief of Circular Economy at WasteServ Daniel Tabone. Photo: DOI

Increase in material arriving separated at sorting facilities - WasteServ 

Chief of Circular Economy at WasteServ Daniel Tabone said that the waste management facilities have seen a 20% increase in the amount of organic waste arriving already sorted. He credited an increase in gate fees as being crucial to keeping this momentum going. 

In total, WasteServ received 20,000 tonnes of recycled waste last year, including 8,000 tonnes of glass, 120 tonnes of milk cartons and 5,000 tonnes of cardboard. 

Tabone said that the new gate fees had been met positively, with a 115% increase in pre-sorted cardboard, an 85% increase in wood and 10 tonnes in mattresses, that would have otherwise ended up in the landfill. 

From an enforcement perspective, Mercieca said that an uptick in illegal dumping had not been observed following the introduction of the gate fees. 

WastServ has also recently required planning permission to build  a skip assortment facility in between the Magħtab and Għallis landfills, that will be able to process 50,000 tonnes of waste generated from skips a year and separate it. 

Waste management is high on the agenda - Miriam Dalli 

Addressing the briefing, Environment Minister Miriam Dalli said that addressing the issues facing waste management with the aim of reaching ambitious reduction targets is "high" on the government's agenda. 

"We are viewing waste as a resource and taking serious steps to turn into from a problem into an opportunity," she said. 

"Currently 80 to 90% of our waste goes to landfills, around 40% of waste dumped into the black bag can be recycled. If we want to reach the goal of only 10% going to landfills by 2035, this has to change." 

Rather than continue to take up valuable land for landfilling, Dalli said the primary focus will be to reduce waste generation at source and through recycling. 

There have been some improvements, Dalli noted, with the average amount of waste generated by one person in Malta every year decreasing by 10%, down from 683 kilos in 2019 to 600 kilos in 2020. 

Clean-up efforts, she said, had also seen the collection of 12,777 kilos in microplastics collected through the Saving Our Blue campaign and over 1,800 tonnes of waste cleared from valleys. 

"We don't want to leave more landfills for our children, but more open spaces," she said.