Landfill Fees: No Agreement reached with Government

During a meeting held last Tuesday between The Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs, WasteServ Malta Limited, and GRTU Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, no agreement was reached on the implementation date of the landfill fees as issued last October through a Government Legal Notice.

After a sporadic protest by waste carriers at the Zwejra landfill on April 01, the date which was intended for implementation of the €20.00 per tonne fee, a meeting was held on the same day during which it was agreed that WasteServ will continue to shoulder the cost of landfilling fees in excess of €0.77 per tonne excluding VAT, thus €19.23 per tonne.

Whilst placing all cards on the table GRTU outlined to the responsible Ministry and WasteServ, that a holistic approach needs to be taken to effect this reform. Currently waste carriers are not equipped with any built in weighing facility and as such cannot at present compute an individual bill to their customers. It was also outlined that currently the Waste Carriers are not getting paid on time and the delays are well over five months and in some cases go beyond a calendar year.

GRTU was informed by WasteServ Chairman, Mr Ben Farrugia, that the Malta Hotels and Restuarants Association has accepted the said landfill increases. GRTU outlined that this was cardinal as now Waste carriers would bill their clients and request payment on time.

GRTU outlined that other then the builtin weighing mechanism, Euro III vehicles had to be exempt from First Registration tax and current Euro II vehicle garaged would pay a nominal percentage only of the current registration tax.

Waste serv outlined a proposal which could be a the starting point for an agreement, however it was pointed out by GRTU that since now Government is talking on total sustainability, this means the private sector had also a full right to know how these funds are to be spent. 

Discussions will continue in the coming days with a view to concluding an agreement beneficial to both Government and the Waste Carriers Sector.

The Meeting was attended by GRTU President Paul Abela, Joe Attard and Marcella Agius, and two representatives namely  and Mrs  M. Gearthy and Mr Ray Attard.