Malta Collected 72 Tonnes More Organic Waste Thanks To New Rubbish Scheme, Minister Says
More organic waste is already being separated since Malta introduced a new waste collection scheme at the start of the year, Local Government Minister Owen Bonnici announced this morning.
During a discussion on ONE TV’s Paperscan this morning, Bonnici said that 72 more tonnes of organic waste were collected in the first week of 2023 than in the first week of 2022. *
“The way the scheme is structured incentivises people to separate organic waste,” Bonnici said. “We assume that black bags only contain black bag waste but I’m informed that 40% of its contents are actually organic. We are encouraging people to take their rubbish bags out on the correct day and to separate waste.”
As per the new nationwide scheme, organic waste is being collected three times a week, while black bags are collected twice a week and recyclable waste is collected once. Glass bottles are now being collected twice a month.
Bonnici said that the scheme is currently in a “transitional phase”. Rubbish bags that are left outside on the wrong day are currently still being collected, but they will soon be left behind, with stickers attached to them to inform people that they made a mistake. Eventually, fines will be imposed on people who put rubbish bags out on the wrong day.
“Fines will be imposed eventually but this will be done intelligently and with respect to the public. Imposing fines straight away would have been insensitive to the public,” Bonnici said.
*An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated that 72,000 more tonnes of organic waste were collected
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