Recycling and waste disposal in Malta. I will share the experience of garbage disposal that I had in Malta.
When I first came to Malta, I couldn’t understand why garbage bags were lying on the footpaths. The footpaths in Malta are narrow, and if there is a pile of garbage bags in front of you, in order to bypass it, you will have to go out onto the roadway. And traffic on the island is on the left side! (Therefore, if anything, be careful!).
When I saw all these heaps of garbage for the first time, I was annoyed — is it hard to bring garbage to the bin? What kind of people are they?! As it turned out later, I was fundamentally wrong.
Waste disposal on the island is at a fairly high level. Now I’ll tell you. Firstly, there are no usual garbage containers that can be seen in most Europe countries. The composition of the construction of streets in the cities and villages of Malta does not provide for a common courtyard where a garbage container can be placed. Therefore, everyone is responsible for their own garbage. First of all, sorting. Here 5 types (!) of garbage is sorted: mix, organic, cardboard, metal, glass. And if it is necessary to dispose of textiles, it can be sent to the mix or to a place specially designated for this purpose with a container. There are garbage collection schedules in the country. And if you suddenly want to throw out the garbage mix on Monday, then it will be impossible to do this — this is the day for organic garbage.

According to the schedule (you can see it in the photo), the service will pick up your organic garbage on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Mix trash on Tuesday and Saturday. Paper, cardboard, metal — on Thursday. But the glass is taken only 2 times a month, on the first and third Friday of the month.
But that’s not all either. In the photo you see 3 types of packages. White bags are for organic waste, they are biodegradable, very interesting to the touch, as if a little wet. If, suddenly, your house has run out of white bags, only black ones are left, — be sure — your garbage will remain at your door.
The idea is great!
I also want to share my experience of recycling plastic bottles. We found a good supermarket Pavi & Pama, good prices and a great selection of goods. But one of the nice bonuses of this supermarket, as it turned out, is that for your purchases you can get free water or toilet paper or put bonuses on your card. And that is not all! After drinking water, you can recycle plastic bottles, and not only from this supermarket, but any plastic bottle and get money for it — €0,10 for any plastic recycled bottle.

I received my money from the disposal of 8 plastic bottles in the form of such an electronic voucher (photo above). And I spent them in the supermarket, reducing the final amount in the check by €0,80. It was nice.
And I also want to add. Yes, I know that not all countries have such a developed waste disposal system. But what can each of us to do? At least the simplest step is to start using fabric bags for vegetables and fruits, forget about plastic bags from the supermarket and switch to eco bags. Let’s try?
P.S. So, food for thought. In Northern Ireland, garbage is collected once every 2 weeks (!!!) from every house. And imagine, if you overslept…