Plastic love affair over? - Mario Schembri

Hardly a day goes by without plastic featuring in news reports or social media posts. It seems this ubiquitous material, which we have not been able to live without for so long, has suddenly become undesirable.

There are very understandable reasons for this state of affairs. The toll plastic is taking on our oceans is alarming. In Malta, we only have to look around to see how much of the stuff is being dumped in our countryside and the Mediterranean Sea.

We have come a long way in this country when it comes to recycling. More and more people are taking responsibility for the disposal of their domestic waste – making use of the door-to-door recycling collection services available in each locality. Many others use the various bring-in sites around the island to even separate their waste further.

Malta had the foresight early on to introduce the concept of producer responsibility, where companies and organisations that trade packaged goods are required by law to finance and organise the collection and recycling of plastics, glass, metal and paper waste materials.

Nevertheless, we must all acknowledge that despite these efforts, much more remains to be done.

But before we turn...