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James Debono
A draft legal notice applying the deposit system on refillable glass bottles to plastic bottlers and cans, will be issued for public consultation in the next days, MaltaToday has learnt.
Consumers will start paying 3 cents on carbonated drinks, mineral water and beer, which will be refundable when they return the empty containers to any outlet accepting these returns.
Moreover, importers and producers will receive a full refund from their eco-contribution if they manage to recover 80 per cent or more of the packaging waste they put on the market.
The scheme will be limited to beverage containers and will not be extended to other forms of packaging.
Beverage containers will also be labelled to ensure an audit trail of every product.
Importers and producers of beverages will be expected to join the scheme, which will collect one-way beverage containers on behalf of all importers and producers. The mandatory scheme will be run by a not-for-profit private company – Malta Deposit and Return Systems Limited (MDRS) – owned by operators in the beverage sector. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority will set up fees and deposit charges.
“Instead of merely returning the refillable glass bottles, consumers will also return one-way PET bottles, glass bottles and cans,” Patrick Catania, the chief executive of the new company said in an exclusive interview with Business Today which will appear next Wednesday.
Conflicting views
While environmental organisation Nature Trust has welcomed the draft legal notice, the Malta Chamber of SMEs (GRTU) is already on the warpath against the new plans.
The proposed scheme will not be mandatory on retailers but the GRTU has already warned retailers not to reach any agreement with MDRS that would involve a deposit scheme on beverages.
Alternatively, the GRTU is proposing a “kerbside” scheme whereby public waste collectors will be responsible to collect bottles and cans from households, without offering any financial incentive to the consumer to return the waste and ensure its recovery.
The GRTU claims its proposed scheme would cost Lm3.6 million which could increase to Lm4.2 million over a period of five years. The GRTU is proposing that the scheme is funded through the eco-tax and by local councils.
But Nature Trust president Vince Attard insists that a deposit system is essential for a recovery scheme to yield satisfactory recovery rates as otherwise consumers will have little incentive to return packaging waste.
“In the absence of a deposit system for plastics and cans, we will end up with more litter in the countryside,” Attard said.
The GRTU contends that packaging represent only a small proportion of litter.
GRTU on warpath
A circular the GRTU sent to its members is claiming the government has withdrawn the legal notice after pressure from the union. But an environment ministry spokesperson has denied that the draft law is being withdrawn.
“Since the beginning our intention was to involve retailers in the new scheme. We want to avoid unnecessary confrontation with a key player like the GRTU,” the spokesperson said.
It was also the intention of the new company to involve the GRTU in the new scheme, which have a place reserved on the company’s board. According to MDRS chief executive Patrick Catania, discussions with the GRTU were at one stage proceeding in a positive direction.
“There were a number of requests made by the GRTU which were being discussed. But suddenly the GRTU changed its position. It was no longer a matter of the GRTU asking for changes and adjustments, they started objecting to the entire concept.”
The GRTU claims retailers will be burdened with hundreds of bottles that will take up their storage space, that there will be hygiene concerns for consumers who will be taking more waste to retail outlets.
While acknowledging that retailers will handle a greater amount of returned bottles, Catania says their workload will not be substantially different to what it is today, because retailers already have to accept refillable glass bottles and to give consumers a refund.
What will change is that the retailer will no longer be expected to keep bottles of different brands in separate crates and to wait for the trucks of each brand to collect them. “With the system we are proposing all the different brands will be deposited in one container which will be regularly collected.”
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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