The government will be stepping up collection of waste in some localities and updating schedules in others as part of efforts to address residents' complaints.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Environment Ministry said that following the "successful" introduction of the organic waste collection on a national level, as well as amendments to the regulations on the disposal of waste, regulations were again being updated to "optimise the current waste collection schedule".

When the recycling regulations were first unveiled last year, the government had come under fire for coming up with what the Opposition had described as "amateurish" regulations.

On Tuesday, shadow minister Jason Azzopardi said the changes announced on Monday had been proposed by the Opposition in October. 

The Environment Ministry said the new changes were proposed by the  stakeholders. 
 
The amendments submitted by Local Councils will be categorised into three :
 
1.      Amendments in the collection time to address complaints that the collection time was not appropriate to behavioural patterns.

2.      Changes to the frequency of collection of mixed waste to address littering occurrences (not exceeding 3 weekly collections of mixed waste).

3.      Revised frequency of recyclables’ collection after consulting with the respective Producer Responsible Organisation.

Localities not identified in the list will retain their schedules, except for Marsalforn and Xlendi, where changes have already been announced..