Over the past decades, the amount of solid waste in Malta has grown alongside the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This linkage needs to be broken and the quantities of waste generated by increased commercial activity needs to be decoupled from the growth in GDP.
The ‘Sustainable Practices Award’ introduced during GreenPak Annual Awards 2016 ceremony, promotes this forward-looking concept. Birkirkara won this new award having registered the most sustainable waste practices for 2015. The quantity of waste collected from Birkirkara in the black bags decreased by an impressive 37%. At the same time, waste packaging recycling in this locality increased to 45kg per capita last year. This was announced by GreenPak’s Coop Society CEO Ing Mario Schembri during GreenPak’s Annual Awards ceremony, held at the Garden of Serenity in Santa Lucia.
The prestigious award for ‘Best Overall Performance’ was presented to the community of Sliema. This award is presented to the community that registers the highest amount of waste recyclables collected. In 2015, Sliema registered a 65% increase in the collections of recyclable waste. Mosta won the ‘Most Responsive Community Award’ for registering a sustained increase of 30% recycling following a two-month educational campaign run by GreenPak in January 2015.
The Ħal Balzan Local Council scooped the ‘Most Supportive Locality’ award for the Council’s continued commitment in mobilizing its residential and business community to recycle more.
The ‘Most Glass Collected Award’ went to the community of Żurrieq.
In 2015, the environmental NGO Nature Trust Malta and GreenPak led a campaign to promote the protection of Malta’s wildlife through the recycling of used clothes. In recognition to this collaboration, Mr. Vince Attrad, CEO of Nature Trust, presented a special award to Qrendi Local Council after its residents were judged to have participated mostly in the used clothes campaign in aid of Nature Trust’s Wildlife Rescue Unit.
Besides receiving the trophy and certificate of achievement, the winning local councils were presented with the prize money of €1,000 to support ongoing environmental projects within their respective locality for the benefit of its residents.