Today Malta joins many countries in celebrating World Environment Day, the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. This day acts as an outreach initiative to do something that contributes to the Earth’s wellbeing and to commit towards becoming an agent of change. It is therefore appropriate for us to take stock of our behaviour in the way we manage our own waste. Despite the infrastructure and the waste management services that are provided to Maltese society the road ahead is still a long one. Given the small size of our country, as well as the extensive degree of urbanization, open spaces that support biodiversity, open countryside and relaxation spaces are at a premium.

Maltese society should be even more sensitive to such constraints and act accordingly to ensure that, through our individual waste management practices, the need for landfill space that takes up virgin land is kept to its bare minimum. For this to happen Government has been investing tens of millions of Euros in infrastructural developments such as the Malta North waste treatment facility, the Gozo waste transfer station, the autoclave facility for animal waste and the new pilot project for the separate collection of organic waste. It has also facilitated the regulatory framework for the private sector to enter the waste management sector through the removal of eco-contribution on a number of products in order to ensure that producer responsibility recovery schemes can operate in a shackles-free environment to further support the waste management effort.

However for any infrastructure or service to be successful, it is imperative that society participates in full. Whilst acknowledging the many who have committed themselves to reducing, reusing and recycling their waste to the best of their abilities we ask them to make a pledge to redouble their efforts. To those who we have not yet engaged, we ask to join us in this challenge to manage waste in a manner that we may reach our recycling targets, generate as much clean energy as possible from waste and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Take a moment today and ask yourself: “How can I improve on managing my waste and what simple habits can I introduce? “The recently launched national information campaign Taħlix l-Iskart (Don’t Waste Waste) is a call to action to make small yet determining steps towards more sustainable waste management. From buying loose fruit and vegetables to reduce packaging waste to reusing an item that you might ordinarily throw away, and by separating your waste in order to adhere to Local Council collection schedules that promote recycling, you too can help make a radical difference in the way we manage our waste. We all create a degree of waste in some way or another, and therefore it is our civic and environmental responsibility as enshrined in the Environment Protection Act to, “protect the environment and to assist in the taking of preventive and remedial measures to protect the environment and manage natural resources in a sustainable manner” by becoming our very own waste champions.

Committing to managing our waste in the most responsible way does not involve much – it may be achieved by making use of the facilities and services that exist to manage our waste properly. Get on board today and make a pledge to reducing the amount of waste we produce and responsibly manage that which we inevitably generate! For more information visit dontwastewaste.gov.mt