Le Meridien Malta joins GreenPak’s Waste Recovery Scheme

Le Meridien Hotel & Spa, St Julians is now taking part in GreenPak’s Hotel Waste Recovery Scheme. GreenPak has been in operation since 2004 and recently the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) has asked GreenPak to assist hotels in their implementation of waste separation.

From the 1st April 2010, hotels in Malta are now being charged a landfill rate of €20 per tonne. Hotels are starting to take the necessary measures to recycle in order to contain these increased fees. Systems are either being introduced or further upgraded so that waste separation by hotel staffs is maximised, thus recovering large amounts of rubbish that would otherwise end up in landfill.

The GreenPak Scheme, operated by GreenPak Coop Society, has made it easier to recycle for hotels such as Le Meridien St Julians. GreenPak collects hotels’ packaged waste and sends it to a MEPA approved facility to be sorted and prepared for recycling.

Le Meridien St Julian’s has been highly motivated in embracing the importance of environmental sustainability in its business practises. The hotel has made physical adjustments to its back end room, giving easier access to recycling skips and with the guidance and assistance of GreenPak, has implemented a number of internal colour coded and labelled bins for its staff’s ease of separation.

A GreenPak Waste Education Officer has engaged the majority of staff in training sessions to enable them to uptake and understand the economic and environmental benefits of the scheme.

Le Meridien St Julians has made a commendable effort and so, has already seen a pleasing increase in tonnage of recyclable waste recovered within its first weeks of engaging in the scheme.

About 37% of a hotel’s weekly disposal consists mostly of packaging waste that can be recycled. Recycling doesn’t take much time and is an easy matter of employees disposing of said waste in one of four colour-coded bins, instead of one. In order to simplify the recycling process, bins are labelled with symbols denoting plastic, metal, paper/cardboard, and glass.

GreenPak operates the only authorised packaging waste recovery scheme in Malta and is the only entity which has a valid waste management permit in accordance with the Maltese  law. Its operations are registered by Green Dot Malta Ltd under PRO Europe – an umbrella organisation for over 30 packaging recovery and recycling schemes across Europe. GreenPak is operating a growing number of successful recovery projects in the hospitality sector.

The scheme is endorsed by the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise, approved by MEPA, and offered in collaboration with the MHRA.

“The growing success of our tried and tested scheme has made GreenPak a pioneer of packaging waste recycling in Malta. GreenPak is committed to alleviating landfill charges for hotels and encourage a greener and healthier environment,” said Ing. Mario Schembri, Green Dot Malta Ltd. CEO.