Updated | Government hits back at PN claims new waste rules drawn up without consultation

The government has rebutted claims by MPs Jason Azzopardi and Robert Cutajar that new waste separation rules will cause confusion, and were drawn up without appropriate consultation with local councils.

Earlier today, a motion was filed in Parliament by the two Nationalist Party MPs asking for the revocation of a new legal notice on waste separation, which they say has several shortcomings.

The MPs said that legal notice 296 - which was issued on 20 September and includes domestic waste collection schedules across all local councils - is fraught with defects which are “the result of carelessness and gross incompetence, and the failure by the Environment Minister to consult with local councils”.

The government, however, is insisting that it had carried out lengthy discussion with all local councils on the matter, and that the new rules will create for the first time a mechanism to regulate the times and types of waste collections.

“The Opposition evidently based its motion on incorrect presumptions which appeared last Sunday in an English-language newspaper, which were subsequently clarified through an official statement issued by the Ministry,” the government said in a statement, “Since the beginning of 2018, the Environment Ministry started intensive discussions with all local councils and with the Association for Local Councils, with minister Jose Herrera also addressing one of the Association’s plenary sessions.”

“A principal fact which the Opposition is intentionally ignoring is that the government is striving to strengthen its enforcement capacity when it comes to the abusive dumping of waste,” it said, underlining that before the publishing of the legal notice, there existed no legal mechanism regulating when, at what time, and what type of waste should be placed outside of residential homes.

“It is through the introduction of a flexible mechanism, by means of a special schedule, that this is now being regulated in order to reduce the inconvenience caused by waste in the streets,” the government emphasised.

“Minister Herrera had already announced in an official statement that the pilot project for organic waste collection, which started in 2015 in a number of localities, would be extended nationwide on 31 October 2018.”

The Environment Ministry went on to say that a leaflet was being distributed to Maltese homes all around Malta - both those which will be receiving an organic waste container, and those which will receive a container for the separation of remaining waste - which explains what waste should we disposed of in which type of bag.

The ministry said that the only “gross incompetence” was being displayed by the Opposition and by Azzopardi, in the way they were behaving when it came to the environment sector.

It added that it would “welcome” any mature discussion on the environment in Parliament.

Earlier: PN MPs file motion in parliament asking for waste rules revocation

In their motion, Azzopardi and Cutjar said that the the new rules will lead to “Babylonian confusion” across local councils, because they failed to set within them times for the collection of organic waste, contained in white bags, for the majority of councils.

This information was left out because of the Environment Minister’s “gross incompetence”, and as a consequence, the aim of the new rules is completely lost and local councils across the Maltese islands would be encountering “big problems”, the MPs said.

“The legal notice also contains other shortcomings”, the motion said, “These include the lack of provision for a collective and harmonised glass collection system for all local councils, with a number of them having been left out.”

“They are also vague about which waste should be placed in black bags, and they don’t define what constitutes ‘glass’. This will cause complications and will be an inconvenience for residents effected by the shortcomings,” the MPs highlighted.

“The Minister said that the rules will need to be enforced, and they will therefore trigger fines and higher taxes.”

The MPs said the aim behind the new rules was a positive one, and was of vital importance, since they would constitute the backbone of the national strategy on waste collection and eventual separation.

However, in view of the reasons put forward, the MPs are asking for Parliament to debate the motion, and for the legal notice to be erased, revoked and annulled.