opinion

Garbage Island

David Pace remembers the now defunct recycling initiative set up by the Environment Ministry and warns that unless the initiative is revamped, we will all soon be residing on Garbage Island

A few months ago the Cleaner Technology Centre of the University of Malta reported that the Maltese throw away 18 million plastic bottles and 16 million aluminium beverage cans each year.
Greenpeace also estimated that about 1.5 million tonnes of solid waste are produced every year. This means that every person produces an astonishing four tonnes of waste a year – four times that produced by people living on the continent!
These are certainly statistics to make one’s jaw drop.
The root of all the evil is the lack of a decent waste separation and recycling policy.
Many of you remember poor Dr Stanley Zammit, who was the environment parliamentary secretary about 10 years ago. Things were going quite well under his authority, stricter hunting laws were implemented and the first attempts at recycling were launched.
As usual, newly implemented "regulations" are always mucked up in Malta. It’s either lack of planning or just plain indifference. The result’s always the same: nothing ever gets done.
Dr Zammit’s idea of introducing waste separation was an excellent one. Unfortunately, it was an idea without a solid foundation to build upon.
I remember separating my rubbish into a bag for biodegradable waste - that is, substances that originally come from living things such as plants and animals. Paper, potato peels and tea bags fall into this category.
In the second bag I placed the non-biodegradable waste: tin-cans, plastic wrappers and bottles. Then something really strange happened. The garbage-collector passed by the house, grabbed both bags and threw them together into the Scammell!
Those who knew something about waste-separation and had obeyed the sparse adverts that appeared on TV started talking and complaining while those who couldn’t care less continued to lump all their rubbish in the same bag without even noticing the aborted waste separating campaign.
People started to realise that garbage collectors were throwing all the rubbish in one heap and that recycling facilities were non-existent. Suddenly, everybody knew that the waste-separating "campaign" had been just another half-baked idea introduced without the necessary framework to make it succeed.
After a while, even the government gave up and forgot the campaign, while Dr Zammit was quietly and unceremoniously removed from office. But that’s another story!
How to separate waste
Waste separation must either be carried out using a system of labelled skips, which means that a household must have different garbage bags or receptacles for different types of refuse. When the receptacle is full, it can either be collected or emptied into the appropriate skip.
We already know what happened when skips were introduced in some localities. The typical selfish individual filled half of it with an old mattress, while another equally selfish individual dumped into it half a tonne of pulverised stone filling it up.
Presto, no more room for the citizens’ domestic waste. So they started placing the bags outside the skip and small dumps developed around every skip!
If specially labelled skips are approved so that garbage is dumped according to type, once the skip is full the problems start and people start to panic. Skips for metal cans are filled with organic waste and those for organic waste are filled with non-biodegradable stuff such as plastic bottles and wrappers. The rest are dumped outside!
Dr Zammit’s early attempt at waste separation would have provided the necessary interlude to train and discipline people until they start accepting the concept of recycling. At present, waste-separation is bound to fail in a country devoid of any discipline, personal or otherwise.
In Europe, streets have specially labelled skips in which metal cans, glass and organic refuse are discarded. Usually, these skips are emptied on specific days so that the people know what to discard. For example, glass is collected on Monday, tin-cans on Tuesday, organic refuse on Wednesday and Thursday, non-biodegradable waste on Friday and Saturday.
Such a system requires the household to save inorganic waste such as glass and tin-cans, organic refuse and non-biodegradable waste in separate bags and discard according to the day of collection. I can just imagine Cetta grumbling that she does not want bags full of garbage in the house, but it’s all right to throw them out and rubbish the street!
Towards recycling
Waste separation also requires educating and informing garbage collectors when, what and how to collect the different types of refuse.
Convincing people to separate waste according to different types of rubbish is the greatest problem. For far too long everyone has dumped all their rubbish in the same bag and left it outside for collection.
Garbage collection has become one of the few efficient services in our country. Changing it is bound to result in a series of hiccups that will leave garbage bags stranded outside and streets strewn with rubbish.
A massive information and media campaign will be needed to explain the benefits of waste separation and the way it should be done. Ideally, after a period of adjustment of about six months, wardens should start checking garbage bags left outside to make sure rubbish is being separated – a messy, unsavoury and time-consuming job – wardens will not be pleased!
The major obstacle is the lack of recycling facilities on the Islands. There seems to have been some attempts at recycling paper, but metals and glass end up in landfills.
The problem is that Malta may be too small to make recycling profitable. Sixteen million aluminium cans weigh less than a 1,000 tonnes, which is probably not profitable enough to offset the costs of recycling.
Instead of trying to recycle plastic bags and bottles, the government should place a special tariff on plastic objects so that suppliers and supermarkets are forced to use recycled paper bags and charge for them. This would decrease the amount of non-biodegradable plastic, which ends up in landfills and is difficult to destroy without the production of toxic fumes and poisonous gases.
Recycling has to be implemented, whether or not we join the EU. If the current production of garbage continues unchecked without the slightest effort on the part of the government to reduce and recycle it, we will all have to start living on Garbage Island!
Many landfills are full and some have become the most complex and difficult environmental problems our country has to face. The Maghtab dump is the clearest and most serious example. But that’s next week’s subject...