Study to determine how to make businesses separate waste

Government experts want a study on how to make businesses getting a free ride on the municipal waste collection system, start separating their trash or pay.

A feasibility study will assess the best waste management approach model for the commercial sector, in a bid to minimise excessive waste being disposed of.

The proposed approaches include drop-off points with controlled access, which would mean having a designated area for business owners to dispose their waste at this site; a subscription service organised locally or regionally with the municipal waste stream; waste collection by private companies; or any hybrid system.

“Assessing the feasibility of various waste management approaches targeting the commercial sector is a requisite to achieve an economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally conscious waste practices,” the environment ministry said in a call for tenders.

It is only until recently that mandatory separation of waste became an obligation for both the commercial and domestic sectors. But a high percentage of food waste and recyclable fractions are still being disposed of in the black, residual bag.

According to the Environment Ministry, the lack of fiscal incentives for waste prevention and separation is leading to this situation, despite the use of gate fees or the beverage container refund scheme and regional waste collection services.

A Material Recovery Facility, currently at design stage, will now be able to receive and treat co-mingled material and material from segregated sources, and recycle waste that would have otherwise gone to landfill.

A new organic processing plant, waste-to-energy facility, skip management facility and a thermal treatment plant are in the pipeline. But the large-scale plants also depend on large volumes of waste input to operate.

Malta faces implications for failing to reach the targets stipulated in the Waste Framework Directive, Landfill Directive and Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

EU businesses are estimated to have the potential to economise up to €600 billion through better eco-design, waste prevention and reuse processes of waste.

Malta currently has door-to-door collection of organic waste, recyclable waste, glass bottles, and other residual waste. A beverage bottle recovery scheme using reverse-vending machines is also in place.

Presently no obligations are imposed on operators of commercial establishments to separate their waste at source, nor to manage the waste they generate. The only obligation is for restaurants, snack-bars, bars, clubs, hotels and other tourism accommodation facilities to engage a third-party contractor to collect their waste.

Establishments can still engage licensed waste carriers through direct contracts, but they must guarantee the separate collection of waste fractions.

In 2020, a long-term waste management plan had anticipated a ‘pay as you throw’ (PAYT) system for commercial establishments, based on a charge that is paid whenever people buy their waste bags.

The system would impose a higher cost on black bags, to ensure that businesses that embark upon separation at source will bear a lower cost of waste management than those who are more careless.

The amount of waste generated by commercial establishments is unknown since most make use of the domestic waste collection systems financed by local councils.

In 2018, 42,406 tonnes of mixed, residual waste were collected from commercial establishments who engaged private waste carriers. But this is believed to be a fraction of the waste the business sector generates.

Current EU targets require that Malta achieves an overall recycling rate of 55%.