The ADPD calls for looking at door-to-door waste collection alternatives
A proposal to reconsider door-to-door garbage collection and the transition to a different waste collection system received ADPD support.
The Green Party said that the current system of Malta was not adapted to today’s realities and should be reviewed. Local councils are the entities best placed to understand the needs of residents, she said, as she supported a proposal to change the system made by the Association of Local Councils.
The LCA has proposed switching to a system of waste collection points that sees 13,000 such points set up around towns and villages. Residents throw garbage at these points, where it is collected from garbage trucks.
Local Councils Minister Jose Herrera said the government is looking at the proposal and acknowledged that alternatives to current systems are desperately needed for some areas.
Malta currently operates a door-to-door waste collection service that collects specific waste streams on specific days, at fixed times.
The system came under criticism for several reasons: from the bad smells and the aesthetics that lead to it; for blocking sidewalks; to cause problems for shift workers who cannot take out the garbage at collection times.
ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said local councils are currently bound by government and Wasteserv directives when it comes to waste collection, and said this needs to change. In this light, the LCA proposal was a reasonable one, he said.
The change systems will require some infrastructural changes on local roads and careful planning and investment, he said, as well as several studies and pilot projects to understand its impact in different environments.
Cacopardo urged the government to allocate the necessary resources to carry out such studies and pilot projects, to map a way forward.
The head of the ADPD has joined the party’s electoral candidate Sandra Gauci, who will be running for office in districts 6 and 12.
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