CONSULTATION OUTCOME: FINAL REPORT
Original consultation
1. Background
Management of packaging waste is
governed in line with the Waste Management (Packaging and Packaging Waste)
Regulations (S.L. 549.43)
and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle.
Accordingly, producers of packaging are obliged to finance any system set up
for the collection and environmentally-sound treatment of the packaging waste
arising from the packaging they place on the national market and attain the
applicable recycling targets. Producers placing on the market sales and grouped
packaging (i.e. the packaging ending up at consumers) are obliged to join an
authorised Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO).
As the legislation stands, PROs main obligations are
to:
- finance any system set
up for the collection and treatment of all municipal packaging waste;
- make arrangements with
individual Local Councils (LCs) for the door-to-door collection and the
provision of recycling points (bring-in sites) for the separate collection of
such waste;
- arrange treatment for
collected recyclable packaging;
- attain the recycling
targets; and
- report data to ERA.
In 2019, the Local Government Act (Chapter 363 of
the Laws of Malta) was amended and introduced the function of the Regional
Councils to issue calls for tenders for waste management services for the local
councils within them. The Waste Management Plan for Malta 2021-2030 singles out
a number of measures aimed at improving Malta’s waste management performances,
including measures on waste collection based on regionalisation. In line with
the amended Local Government Act, such measures aim at fostering the establishment
of economies of scale through regional waste collection.
To that end, six regional service tenders were
published on 19th May 2022 for “Household
Waste Collection using Low Emission Vehicles” in order to cater for the
door-to-door collection service for household residual waste (the black bag),
organic waste (white bag) and recyclables (green/grey bag plus glass).
Overview of the proposed amendments
The proposed
amendments aim at implementing the regionalisation reform in the management of
packaging waste in line with the above-mentioned regional tenders.
Notably, through
such proposed amendments, the Regional Councils are obliged to set up systems
for the regional door-to-door collection, transport and treatment of all municipal
packaging waste generated, attain the recycling targets with respect to such
packaging waste and report data to ERA accordingly. In case of failure to
achieve said targets, ERA may resort to imposing an administrative penalty on
Regional Councils. On the other hand, PROs will be obliged to finance such
systems according to their market share and to maintain overall management of the
recycling points.
Furthermore, the
proposed amendments allow for producers placing on the market refillable gas
cylinders to self-comply if a return system to re-use such cylinders in an
environmentally sound manner is in place.
2. Consultation Questions
In line with
Article 55 of the Environment Protection Act (Cap. 549), the public is invited
to make submissions to ERA with their comments as to why and how these draft regulations
could be amended.
3. Documents
Disclaimer: Please be informed that comments submitted,
together with the identity of the contributor, may be published online at the
end of the public consultation, unless the contributor objects to the
publication of his/her personal data. In this case, the contribution may be
published in anonymous form. All comments submitted
shall be duly considered.