Five kerbside collection trucks will soon be driving around towns and villages collecting waste which cannot be thrown away with regular household waste.

The vehicles, which were launched on Monday by the Environment Ministry, will stop at village cores in every locality around twice a month.

They will allow people to dispose of materials such as lightbulbs or cooking oil which cannot be thrown away with regular waste.

The trucks will also be equipped to collect materials such as cardboard and polystyrene, used clothing, and regular recyclable materials such as plastic or glass bottles. 

Launching the vehicles at Gregorio Bonici square in Żejtun, Wasteserv CEO Tonio Montebello said that Malta was lucky to be a country that offered waste disposal services for free and that there was “no excuse for anybody to dump or dispose of their waste incorrectly”. 

Environment Minister Jose Herrera said that investment was another phase in a plan to minimize the use of black bags as much as possible. 

“Our policy as a government has been to move from a linear economy to a circular economy and in order to achieve this we have to separate and recycle our waste,” the minister said.

“We need to start thinking of our waste as a resource.” 

Parliamentary Secretary for local government Silvio Parnis said he understood that older generations who were used to disposing of everything in one bag may find it difficult to adapt, however, he said, it was time for everyone to understand that the mentality had changed. 

“We cannot keep going on without separating our waste or continuously using single use plastics because we cannot imagine the damage we’re doing to our environment,” Mr Parnis said. 

The parliamentary secretary also said he was working on a legal notice that would oblige entertainment establishments to provide outdoor receptacles for the disposal of cigarette butts and cut down on the public discarding of such waste. 

“What we are doing might not be popular with everyone, but we are doing it to safeguard our future generations,” Mr Parnis said. 

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