World Environment Day, is celebrated on the 5th of June, and to mark the occasion, the GreenPak Cooperative Society, which operates the GreenPak authorised scheme, has issued some statistics achieved through the collection of packaging waste in Malta and Gozo, “therefore making a substantial contribution to the environment.”

Apart from increasing the number of Local Councils it services from 19 councils in 2009 to 41 four years later, GreenPak said it has experienced a significant increase in its membership base with over 1,300 member companies contributing financially in the collection and recycling of packaging waste.

Between 2010 and 2014, GreenPak said that i saved enough energy to power 1,000 offices for one year. Other achievements include:

Recycled plastic enough to make 7.85 million fleece jackets

Recycled cardboard enough to save 441,000 trees

Recycled 14 million glass bottles

Recycled metal enough to make 100,000 bicycles

Recycled Plastic enough to make 1.57 million carpets

Saved 400,000m³ of space at Ghallis Landfill

The company said that, whilst GreenPak’s recycling efforts are yielding ever better results, the latest figures published by the EC’s statistics office Eurostat show that Malta is still amongst the lowest performing EU member states, with almost 44.7 per cent of packaging waste recovered or recycled.

“This contrasts sharply when compared with the success rate of other countries such as Belgium, which recovered or recycled almost 96.9 per cent of its packaging waste, Austria (at 93.7 per cent) and Germany (at 97.4 per cent).”

GreenPak CEO Ing Mario Schembri said, “the initiatives run by GreenPak Coop have led Malta to increase recycling without the need of taxing consumers. There is still much more to be done to bring Malta at par with other countries. Fragmentation in such a small market is the next barrier that needs to be overcome if Malta is to achieve the same levels of recycling as other countries which are doing better than we are in this sector.”

GreenPak is a scheme authorised and approved by MEPA for the collection of packaging waste in Malta. More information about the recycling scheme can be obtained by phoning 2166 1081, visiting Greenpak website www.greenpak.com.mt, or email: info@greenpak.com.mt.

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