Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/333851
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 JUNE 2014 Opinion 23 Leo Brincat Waste: a resource but also a potential booby trap I t has long been a given that waste is a resource and that unless resource management turns out to be the key of any waste plan, it will not be worth the paper it has been written on. Nevertheless the quest for turning waste into a resource cannot be pursued blindly without the necessary basic and or preliminary due diligence tests being first carried out. The days are long gone when 'private sector operators' turn up offering instant solutions to all our problems in the waste sector. I have given up believing in fairy tales for quite some time now. Waste exportation is covered worldwide by the Basel Convention and introduced into Community Law by Regulation 1013/2006. The regulations stipulate how, where and what waste EU member states can handle and or ship within and outside the EU. The regulation is a dynamic one. Each year and whenever necessary, the Commission issues subsequent changes to the Regulation according to changing realities and the wishes of other sovereignties. To cite an example. If, say, Thailand was allowing glass waste to enter its territories and its glass recycling facilities for some reason or other remain no longer in operation, Thailand may inform the EU to stop sending it glass waste – this is then transmitted within the regulations of the following year. While Malta has a legal notice declaring that only waste brokers permitted by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority may ship waste to and from the Maltese islands, these brokers must follow procedures set in certain specific regulations. In practice many countries – and Malta cannot be excluded either – have shown that exportation of waste has been and can still be shipped illegally by non permitted waste brokers. This can be done through false declaration in customs documents, via ports that lead directly into other EU member states, hence forcing the authorities to turn a blind eye as was reported to have happened in the past. In addition there could be faults in the system. Malta has a number of entities operating in its waste broker system. Companies that generate their own waste. Facilities that treat waste prior to shipment. Middlemen specifically working solely on waste exportation. Shipping agents to cater for the one-off clients. Transport companies to cover any type of merchandise. Foreign companies who bid for WasteServ Malta tenders. Companies who register as brokers and are not active. Since my days in Opposition I had come to learn that the system of permitting waste brokers is inherently flawed, hence leaving the exportation of waste open to abuse. I am sure that the studies being undertaken by our ministry will be addressing any still remaining flaws in the system. There seems to be no system in place to award broker permits solely to entities that have proven themselves technically competent to handle waste. There have been reported instances that allow the regulator to issue more than one broker permit to the same person so long as he or she registers the permit under a different company name. Hence Mr X may have three different broker permits under the different company names, and commit a flagrant foul under one only. Consequently the regulator will proceed under that particular name, while allowing him or her to continue operating under the other two broker permits. In the past I had learnt of various cases where the regulator was lenient when issuing broker permits and it failed to tie down the brokers concerned as much as they should. This can be particularly dangerous when dealing with foreign companies who do not have any physical anchors within Malta itself. I have long heard of cases whereby foreign companies have reportedly taken advantage of certain loopholes in the system to the detriment of the Maltese government in general and Wasteserv in particular. There was a particular past case where someone based in Scotland had been issuing several broker permits under several companies at a time when the regulator was aware that the EU Commission had actually formed a task force group on enforcing waste shipments, particularly after the same person had been caught shipping waste illegally from Ireland to the East. This operator then ended up leaving both WSM and several brokers chasing him in court cases in his absence. Others have been known to have been operating for sometime in Malta either through puppet brokers by promising them instant riches or else through the set up of their own dummy companies. There was a particularly alarming case that had involved the shipment of aluminium cans. Eventually the bubble had burst, leaving WasteServ with some fifth of a million of euros in the red, and with the person involved served with an international arrest warrant. I have heard of cases where the same operator tried to smuggle glass waste into Thailand at a time when such imports were prohibited. He first provided the regulator with the wrong waste codes. When it started refusing his exports of waste applications, he shifted the export of waste to Malaysia by providing a PO Box address as an address for a fake recycling facility. The time has come for us to be pro active and to re-examine the procedure to permit and award tenders to entities with no fixed assets in Malta. We cannot continue to have a situation as prevailed in the past where certain waste brokers try to bypass the regulator by submitting Customs paper work first, only for them not to bother going to the regulator if they successfully acquire a green light to export via customs automated systems. I would not like to be misunderstood. I see export of waste as a viable option so much so that during a Chamber of Commerce seminar held a week ago in conjunction with the German Embassy those present did not see full blown thermal treatment as the solution for our country's waste problems. But on the other hand we need to be vigilant, pro active and very careful. As what is indeed a resource, and a very lucrative one indeed, could easily turn out to be a booby trap that could easily tarnish our international standing and reputation. Leo Brincat is Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment, and Climate Change Reducing the school dropout rate and increasing the rate of tertiary qualifications is one of the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy