Editorial | Waste collection: still a long way to go

The increased frequency for the collection of organic waste and the reduction of black bag collection is a powerful incentive for people to act responsibly.

Separating once waste  is after all the right thing to do, especially in view of the environmental challenges Malta and the entire world are facing.  It is also something which citizens in most EU countries have been doing for decades.  Grumbling about having to keep organic waste in the kitchen bin for a couple of days smacks of complete absence of civic responsibility.

Unfortunately,  Malta has a long way to go to reach EU targets and far too much waste ends up landfilled instead of being recycled and reused.  In the EU Malta is one of the countries that generates the most mixed waste. 20% of black bag waste from residences consists of organic waste that can be easily been separated.

In the commercial sector the situation is even worse, with 30% of black bag waste consisting of organic material.

In short Malta has lost too much time in procrastination, mostly thanks to the fear of different governments to  irk constituents by addressing the problem head on.  Malta has missed the bus in the 1990s when the efforts made by Stanley Zammit  to instil a culture of waste responsibility in his role as parliamentary secretary for the environment were  not followed up by his successors.

This meant that Malta continued landfilling waste, making the introduction of incineration inevitable.

Unfortunately, the government must now push through a massive culture change in the shortest possible timeframe amidst an explosion of population numbers.

But the success of any waste collection system depends not just on civic pride and a sense of corporate and personal responsibility but also on an efficient and streamlined collection system boosted by a robust and effective enforcement system.

In this sense we should start treating Malta like a medium sized European city with a robust and adequately funded system responsible for nation-wide collection and  a parallel system of enforcement.

This needs the right balance between subsidiarity and centralisation.

It is also pretty obvious that localities which experience a sudden influx of tourists, or are witnessing a constant turnover of people living in rented accommodation, should have additional waste collection rounds. Moreover, local councils are an important peg in ensuring  public compliance not just through coercion but by listening to public concerns.

At the same time, it makes little sense to have different collection times which tend to be confusing for an increasingly mobile population.

While some localities require extra collection rounds, the basic collection times should be uniform and should correspond to the needs of a modern society.

Moreover, it is high time that the commercial sector is empowered to take responsibility for its own waste.  It does not make sense for commercial establishments to take a free ride on the domestic collection system which is already over-burdened by an increase in population.

In this context enforcement should serve as a deterrent for those putting out the wrong waste bag on the pavement, or misuse the bring-in sites.

In short, the only way to address abuse is by issuing warnings followed by stringent fines.

As a starter, all bring-in sites should have CCTV cameras, and secondly the promised enforcement to ensure people are separating waste correctly and putting out the correct bag on the right day should kick off.

One common sense solution would be that of replacing the black bag with a transparent one, in a way that deters people from using this bag to throw organic material or plastic.