NEWS | Wednesday, 19 September 2007

Mepa Register of Companies causes concern

Maltese companies have until the end of September to register with Mepa as producers of waste packaging. This applies to all those companies, which create discarded packaging in the course of their business.
Companies trading in consumer goods such as food items, beverages, clothes, toiletries, stationery, detergents, paints, electrical goods, pharmaceuticals and any packaged product one can imagine, fall under the definition of packaging waste producers. Following this registration process, Mepa will publish the list of the registered companies including the quantity of packaging they claim to have put on the Maltese market last year.
One difficulty local companies face is the public exposure of sensitive data. Apart from declaring themselves as producers of packaging waste, companies need to accompany this statement with a precise breakdown of packaging placed in the market during 2006. A leading executive said, “It is not rocket science to arrive at the market share of a given company once the resulting packaging weight is known.” In Malta, market share is historically a well-guarded secret due to the harsh competitive environment of operating in a small market. Companies are therefore being extremely cautious with the ongoing registration process, which Mepa originally intended to finalise by January of this year.
Once the packaging volumes are established, the regulations further require companies to give details on how the discarded packaging was recovered and recycled.
In practice, individual companies find it difficult to recover the packaging generated by their trade. Instead many are opting to form part of the GreenPak Mepa authorised Compliance Scheme. When companies voluntarily join GreenPak, the individual company’s obligations are transferred onto the scheme and GreenPak then recovers packaging waste on their behalf.
GreenPak is part of the European wide Green Dot organisation responsible for diverting millions of tonnes of discarded consumer packaging away from landfill and towards recycling.
Companies yet to register can obtain the necessary forms by downloading them directly from the GreenPak website at www.greendot.com.mt.