14,000 Bottles And Cans Collected Through BCRS Scheme At Ħaż-Żebbuġ Festa
Ħaż-Żebbuġ independent councillor Steve Zammit Lupi has taken to social media to celebrate the success of a BCRS machine which reportedly collected a massive 14,000 bottles and cans during the Festa celebrating the local patron saint, Philip of Agira.
“In the 2019 and 2022 festivals, we put out bins for bottles and collected over 1000,” said Zammit Lupi in a post to social media.
“This year, with the ten cent incentive, 14 times more was collected.”
The feast of St. Philip of Agira is celebrated in Ħaż-Żebbuġ in the week leading up to the second Sunday of June.
The actual feast day falls on 12th May but celebrations are postponed until summer, and the joyous occasion, unfortunately, often brings with it a significant amount of waste littering the streets.
The local councillor believes that the huge increase in collected recyclable materials is a sign of the BCRS scheme’s success – which is, in turn, keeping his locality much freer from discarded waste.
“There is no doubt that because of this system, we’ve managed to keep streets cleaner than ever during the Festa. Everyone noticed, and it is not a coincidence.”
“Owners of shops and clubs made an effort to separate bottles and cans from the rest of their waste” continued Zammit Lupi, “and there were children who played a game and with the vouchers – before spending them on sweets from shops”.
“There were people who collected bottles to exchange them. I know of some who cashed in an extra €50 or €100 in a week.”
Earlier this year, Steve Zammit Lupi called for a total ban on plastic bottles – stating that “recycling is not enough”.
His argument was that the vast majority of waste which is collected for recycling in Malta, Europe and around the world is not actually recycled – but is often exported to third nations where it is incinerated or sent to land fill.
Though this may transplant the problem out of sight, it does not remove it from our global system – and often only contributes to the worsening of conditions for people who already live in conditions of poverty relative to those exporting their waste.
“There are those who said we went back 30 years by implementing BCRS machines” said Zammit Lupi. “I don’t agree!”
“We would be being left behind if all this waste continued to be dumped in the landfill. Waste is a collective responsibility.”
Malta is just one cog in a global system which is still producing far more plastic than should be acceptable, given that we are not even fully aware of how devastating the effects of plastic pollution, and micro-plastics infiltrating every level of our food-chains, are going to be for coming generations.
Though it is positive that the BCRS incentives are contributing to cleaner streets locally, we cannot neglect to think about where that plastic is going just because it isn’t in our streets.
Additionally, while it is positive that the scheme is helping people financially, we might also consider that if people are relying on BCRS refunds to be able to afford food and rent, BCRS success could simultaneously be a symptom of economic struggle.
“We must reduce how much we are throwing away, but what is thrown away must be separated and recycled.”
What do you make of the BCRS scheme?
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