Motion on waste rules ‘sorriest, most puerile’, Herrera says, as Opposition insists on going back to drawing board

The legal notice on waste separation, which comes into effect on 1 November, was drawn up with the necessary consultation with local councils and with the required information campaign to residents, and it was now the right time to implement new waste rules, Jose Herrera said.

As a discussion in Parliament was underway this evening - on a motion filed by PN MPs Jason Azzopardi and Robert Cutajar asking for the new waste separation legal notice to be revoked, the Environment Minister stood his ground that all local councils were given all details of the new waste collection rules.

A decision on whether the motion would go through was not taken today, with a division which was requested set to take place during next week’s sitting.

In their motion, Azzopardi and Cutjar had 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, for the majority of councils.

They both urged the government in Parliament today to take back the legal notice, and start a discussion period including consultation with local councils.

But Herrera, calling the motion “the sorriest, silliest and most puerile” one ever presented to Parliament in his political career, said that the waste sector vision of the Opposition was in a hopeless state. “You don’t know the ABZ of waste separation,” he quipped, quickly correcting himself and saying, “The ABC, not ABZ.”

“The motion the Opposition brought forward shows that it is only there to cause disruptions in this sector”, he continued, as he apologised for being so blunt, “They have only criticised and not done so constructively. They also refused to take part in any discussions, because, as they said, they are only here to be critical.”

The legal notice has a number of aims, including introducing a mentality of scheduled waste collection and updating fines.

According to the notice, if on a certain day the grey bag has to be collected, residents cannot take other bags or containers out on that day.

He said that, for the first time, the legal notice was introducing a scheduled on what type of waste is collected on which days. “The schedule has to be communicated to residents by the local councils, and this remains their responsibility, because it is they which know the needs of their community.”

Herrera underlined that the new schedules, which will be starting from 31 October, were agreed to by all the local councils, and that these will be communicated to residents very soon ahead of the starting date.

He then clarified that fines, which are included in the legal notice, won’t be imposed from the outset, but only after a trial period. Instead, people who take out the wrong bag will have a sticker stuck to it which will let them know that they made a mistake. “We will introduce the system gradually - we’re not going to issue any fines immediately.”

“The Opposition had an issue with the use of the [Maltese] term “tassattiv” in the legal notice. “Tassattiv” means “compulsory” and not a tax, but the illiterate Opposition want to keep insisting that it means “tax”, and that some taxes are going to be introduced, which is not true,” he said.

“They are being puerile. ‘Puerile’ means childish - it might have to be explained to the Opposition since they don’t seem to understand words with Latin origins.”

“We undertook an intensive campaign in the media to inform people, and everyone will receive a leaflet explaining the system. We issued a tender for 170,000 containers, and these are being distributed. Sometimes we don’t find people home. If people end up without a container, they can still place the waste in the required bag - a white or transparent one,” he added.

Aim of rules is positive, but legal notice a hotchpotch - Azzopardi

When his time came to speak, PN MP Azzopardi underlined that the Opposition had been receiving word from residents who had been criticising the upcoming new system, and had to react to this.

“We have the obligation to address this,” he said, “Yes we need a new system for waste collection, and the aim behind the rules is positive. We are not imputing any bad faith in the rules.”

PN MPs Jason Azzopardi (pictured) and Robert Cutajar stressed that while the new rules had a positive aim, they were a "hotchpotch" and would bring about a lot of confusion

Azzopardi said the Opposition was definitively in favour of waste separation, considering how far back from achieving its targets Malta was.

He said the Opposition did not want to throw out the baby with the bathwater, and recognised the necessity of having new rules, so it wanted to go back to the drawing board for discussions.

“There’s a way and a way how to go about things. We have to say that, despite the aim being a good one, after next week there is going to be a lot of confusion.”

He said the legal notice contained so many mistake that it was certain that the new rules were a result of haste. “It is a hotchpotch,” he said.

“For two-thirds of the localities, the collection time for the white bag [for organic waste] aren’t mentioned.”

“We are requesting that this legal notice is annulled, and replaced by a new one which is drawn up after the appropriate consultation process with local councils and stakeholders.”

“Let’s take the English version of the legal notice. For a number of towns, the legal notice sets out the times when glass is collected. But for Tarxien, it simply states ‘The glass is collected’, without specifying a time,” he said, pointing out the lack of coherency.

Many families in various towns and villages were not given any information on how the system would be working, he said. People were queuing in certain localities, waiting to be given an organic waste bin, and not knowing what was going on, he said, reiterating that the people were not being informed well enough on the matter.

He also raised doubts on whether foreign families resident in Malta were being told about the changes in waste collection.

“We would have been falling short of our responsibilities if we didn’t point out these problems,” Azzopardi stressed.

PN MP Cutajar also posted out other short-comings in the legal notice.

“The legal notice sets out that waste cannot be taken out more than four hours before the collection time. But, let’s take Had-Dingli - the collection time laid out in the legal notice is 6pm, so someone will have to leave work and go home to take the trash out at 2pm,” Cutajar said.

“In Hamrun, collection time is 11.30am, so if you start work at 6am, you couldn’t take the waste bags out.”

“Let’s admit this legal notice was done hastily and without the required consultation,” Cutajar stressed, “Let’s postpone this and discussion it further.”