How GRTU owned company inflated waste figures for 2009

MaltaToday’s Sunday edition reports how Green MT admitted to collecting “grey bags” from councils which at the time did not have a contractual agreement with either of Malta’s two waste recovery schemes.

The report reveals that the waste collected from these councils helped the company reach the established quota needed to obtain a permit to operate from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

Moreover, the Hamrun and Tarxien councils have told MaltaToday that they were not even aware that GreenMT had collected waste from their locality in 2009.

Since recycling schemes like GreenMT have to reach a quota in order to qualify for a MEPA permit  the GRTU’s company had an interest in maximising the amount of waste collected during that period. 

Eligibility for tax exemptions by businesses who were members of the GRTU’s scheme also depended on the scheme reaching these targets. Collecting waste from localities with which it had no agreement helped Green MT to honour its commitment to these businesses.

The quarterly reports for the period between July and September 2009 presented to MEPA show the GRTU company declaring the recovery of material generated from B’Bugia, Hamrun, Tarxien, Zabbar and Zejtun, localities which had no contractual agreement with Green MT. 

According to Green MT, all the waste collected was invoiced by Wasteserv Ltd when it was sent to the Sant Antnin recycling plant.

When contacted by MaltaToday, Green MT Director Joe Attard confirmed that grey bags were recovered from these local councils and that Green MT paid for the collections.

“During the said, period the mentioned local councils were not in agreement with any other scheme,” Attard told MaltaToday.

Green MT also says that during that period it also collected recyclable material from other councils in Malta.

According to Attard, during that period, Green MT operated a pilot project with thirteen businesses.

“The permit issued by MEPA for the period allowed us to recover recyclable material fractions from any source including local councils”.

But local councils are denying any knowledge that waste was collected from their localities by the GRTU’s company.

The executive secretary of the Hamrun Local Council insisted that the council  never had a contract with Green MT and that the Council now has a contract with Green Pak.

“The Hamrun Local Council is not aware that waste collected from Hamrun was being declared by Green MT”.  

The Tarxien council also made it clear “it was not aware that waste being collected from the locality was being declared by Green MT”.

On its part, the Birzebbuga council confirmed that it did not have any contracts with Green MT in the mentioned period.

But during the mentioned period, the Birzebbuga local council “had ongoing talks with Green MT with regards to recycable waste.”

When asked whether it had verified the information contained in the audited reports presented by GreenMT a spokesperson for MEPA – the competent authority regulating this sector – insisted “that it is not involved in the contracts between such local councils and schemes and the annual reporting made by such schemes is in turn audited by means of an independent auditor”.

According to MEPA, “audit reports have been provided by both schemes (Greenpak and Green MT) for the year 2009, which reports were reviewed, and a number of points were raised, to which MEPA is awaiting a reply.”

Recycling schemes – namely the GRTU owned Green MT and Green Pak were set up to help Malta catch up with the EU’s strict recycling targets and to decrease the amount of waste reaching landfills as required by the Landfill Directive.

Businesses producing packaging waste benefit from tax exemption if the  scheme of which they form part of reaches its waste recovery targets.  Otherwise, they are liable to pay tax on the amount of packaging waste they put in to the market.

Local councils who are responsible for domestic waste collection are another important stakeholder in the sector. 

The government encourages councils to landfill less waste by joining waste recovery schemes.

After raising landfill fees paid by councils for the dumping of municipal waste, the government started subsidising them for the extra expense. 

But the same subsidy is still given to councils who decrease waste taken to the landfill by becoming members of waste recovery schemes.  

In this way, the more waste is collected by the waste recovery schemes, the more money is left in the council’s coffers.