Make it your business not to waste

The Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change organised a business breakfast on how to reduce waste in business as part of the European Week for Waste Reduction which took place at the end of this month at the Golden Tulip Vivaldi Hotel in St Julian’s.

Aimed at local businesses, the general message was “Make it your Business not to Waste”. A number of keynote speakers in waste management, among them waste expert Mario Schembri from AIS, and Wasteserv Chairman David Borg, spoke about how being proactive about waste is the way forward. Other speakers included Charlene Mercieca from Soap Café, Victor Galea from VG Tiles, and Selina Zerafa from Malta Freeport.

“To effectively reach our targets we need the active participation from all industry players as well as from all private citizens”, stated Minister Herrera whilst confirming the government’s commitment in strengthening efforts related to educational campaigns. Moreover, the government will intro- duce other measures and initiatives such as the implementation of nation-wide collection of the organic bag, the implementation of the Beverage Container Refund Scheme, more enforcement, the implementation of a waste to energy facility by 2023, and other measures including those of a legal nature.

The European Week for Waste Reduction is a Europe-wide initiative aimed at promoting the implementation of awareness-raising actions about sustainable resource and waste management during a single week. It encourages a wide range of audiences and stakeholders, including public authorities, private companies, civil society as well as citizens themselves to get involved and come up with more and more ways to reduce waste. For more information on how to get involved visit http://www.ewwr.eu and for more tips on how to reduce waste in the business place, visit dontwastewaste.gov.mt.