997 Bottles Recycled Through ‘Kaxxa’, A Waste-Collection Box Making A Cameo At Żebbuġ Feast
NGOs and Local Councils have upped their recycling game at local festi through ‘Kaxxa’, an enormous collection box that collected no less than 997 plastic bottles at the Żebbuġ feast.
The bottles, collected over the span of a week, will now be recycled and reused, as opposed to being thrown away conventionally.
Independent councilor and activist Steve Zammit Lupi thanked all who made use of the box. Especially kids who made a game of tossing discarded plastic bottles into the box, but in doing so, saved the space from litter.
The collection device made its debut at the University of Malta as part of an initiative spearheaded by Zammit Lupi and Żibel co-founder chairman Andrew Schembri.
“The idea is that any Local Council can contact us and use it. Ideally we use it over the course of the entire week for it to have the greatest impact,” Schembri told Lovin Malta.
“The concept was a hit, because it’s quite stress-relieving for passers-by to be able to toss their garbage in it, especially from a distance.”
Through social media, Zammit Lupi appealed for more local councils to follow suit by contacting Żibel. And had even appealed to Environment Minister Miriam Dalli, writing “let’s get this box at every Festa and mass event in Malta – let’s sort out our trash,” on his social media.
Il-Kaxxa is a large-scale plastic bottle collection device designed to hold 2,000 plastic bottles. An enormous box with a built-in net, which was also recycled from a diving clean-up.
The make-up of the box allows passers-by to toss their plastic bottles inside it with ease, making it ideal for mass events, which include Maltese feasts. LEDs on the box’s rim also make for an attractive sight in the absence of daylight, especially during festivities, after they are made to brandish the colours of the specific festa.
Successfully collecting 997 bottles at the Żebbuġ feast was already massive, but according to Schembri, it is estimated that it only marks a fifth of all the plastic waste coming out of a typical Maltese feast.
Nevertheless, there is no question that it is a neat, new way of recycling unwanted plastic, at any mass event and not merely traditional festi.
If you are organising an event and would like to use Kaxxa, you can easily do so by getting in touch with Żibel or by emailing them directly on [email protected].
Do you think Kaxxa should feature in every mass event in Malta?