[WATCH] GreenPak to give out €100 a day in bid to promote recycling

Waste separation cooperative GreenPak this morning launched a campaign called ‘Crush and Win’ which will see it give out a daily €100 prize to a potential winner.

To be in with a chance of winning, members of the public must write their phone number on any plastic bottle or container, before crushing the bottle and throwing it away in a blue bin. GreenPak said that, those keen on winning could also collect plastic waste thrown away recklessly by others.

At a joint press conference with Environment Minister Jose Herrera and Parliamentary Secretary for local government Silvio Parnis, GreenPak CEO Mario Schembri said the primary objective of the campaign was reducing littering and plastic being discarded in the “our environment and oceans”.

GreenPak said that almost 60,000 tonnes of packaging material comes onto the local market on an annual basis, with only 32% however being recycled. It added that studies were currently underway to determine the proportion of un-recycled plastic making its way into the sea.

“While plastic packaging is essential for the preservation of our food and drink, it is being misused,” said Schembri. “We have invested large amounts of money in facilitating recycling for the public and participation in these initiatives has increased, but we collectively need to step up the anti-littering effort.”

On his part the minister emphasised the need to reduce the amount of waste making its way to the sea, adding that the government intended to see this reduced by up to 70%.

Turning to the waste management committee tasked with selecting the preferred technology for the country's new waste managment plan, Herrera said, that studies would be concluded by the end of the year. "Their work is at an advanced stage and their reprot will soon be ready," said the minister.

He said that following the publication of the report, the ministry would be issuing the necessary tenders and administrative actions necessary for the proposed waste management plant.

“This plant won’t completely solve the waste management problem because it is only intended to deal with 40% of generated waste, because, according to the EU, 60% of waste must be recycled,” he said.

As a result, he said the government would be promoting “radical schemes to create new waste streams”, such as the bottle refund scheme announced today. One such example, he said, was the expansion of a pilot project for the collection of organic waste which has so far been limited to only a few localities.