‘Pay as you throw systems’ are a way forward. Malta has over the years not delivered in implementing a waste management strategy that fulfils our own needs. In my younger days, I remember the waste collector picking up our metal bin from outside the door and, after emptying it, hurling it back to its place.
Today, 50 years later, the metal bin is gone, replaced by a plastic bag. But nothing much has changed except for the fact that over the years we have become heavier consumers and dispose of more and more waste with no mercy.
Landfill capacity has long been exhausted and our only tangible answer is expropriating more land from anywhere near the Magħtab environmental complex and increasing the space for landfilling or for other ventures related to it as decided by the government. And in the meantime, we continue to state that we love the environment and will go out of our way to protect it even if there is an economic price to pay. These words are just pie in the sky, no politician has walked the talk on this matter and probably in my lifetime none will.
This said, I will not desist from writing what the solutions are for this island gem in the Mediterranean.
A first would be educating people how not to generate waste but, once generated, we need to ascertain that whoever generates it firstly segregates it at source. This is still not a legal, mandatory obligation in Malta and it seems legislators (politicians) are reluctant to do this. They only think of votes lost. They only think of the word ‘power’ and without votes power diminishes.
Additionally, our landfilling fee of €23.60 per ton (VAT included) is not the actual cost of landfilling according to the Landfill Directive. Everyone knows it: from the gurus at Wasteserv to the high-ranking administrators in government ministries. But here again it’s all about votes, so the political will is not there to come to terms with the situation and increase this fee to at least €80 plus VAT per ton.
The above three initiatives are cardinal if we really want to have a national waste strategy worth the paper it is written on by the end of 2020. What is the use of talking about the BCRS (beverage container refund system) or the single plastics strategy or the European Green Deal if we do not have the basics entrenched in our laws?
Local councils need to take a great leap forward and make their own residents pay for the waste they generate
Politicians need to practise what they preach. For many of them, the environment and climate change are a myth or a new way of alienating those around them from other important subject matters. They are not at all worried about filling two landfills or maybe reclaiming sea for disposing of our waste. As long as no votes are lost along the way, they live happily ever after.
There are solutions to manage our waste, they start from basics. We need to be ready to take the plunge, and I say we, because this has nothing to do with red or blue or green, it has to do with each and every one of us through our local councils.
Our local councils should play a leading role in waste management. They should lead by example. They cannot just consider waste from a cleanliness point of view. That is just an amateurish outlook by councils who do not care about their waste management strategy. And yes, many do not have a clue where to start.
They openly want waste carriers to collect anything they find in the streets, and many do not care if it’s a black, green, grey or white bag – take it as long as it needs to be disposed.
Local councils need to take a great leap forward and make their own residents pay for the waste they generate. They should be the ones who establish bye-laws to introduce ‘pay as you throw systems’. They should lead and then the government will follow.
I wonder which will be the first local council which has the guts to push forward such a bye-law! I assume their answer today is that they cannot charge residents for such a service. If so, lobby for the system to be changed. You are there to make change happen.
After all, local government is there to do what the national government will not do.
Joe Attard is chief executive officer of Green MT.