€1.9 million worth of vouchers issued for BCRS scheme have not been cashed yet

Up until 23rd September, €1,978,429 worth of vouchers issued as part of Malta’s BCRS scheme have yet to be cashed by customers.

Figures were tabelled in Parliament by Minister for the Environment, Energy and the Regeneration of the Grand Harbour, Miriam Dalli, when asked by Member of Parliament Ian Vassallo.

In total, since 14th November 2022, a total of €35.2 million worth of vouchers have been issued to consumers as part of Malta’s beverage container refund scheme.

The initiative, operated by BCRS Ltd, incentivises the return of single-use beverage containers by applying a refund of €0.10 deposit on the sale of beverages. Consumers and businesses can then regain their deposit by returning the empty container to one of the company’s reverse vending machines.

The Minister noted that vouchers can only be cashed within 12-months of them being issued, or else they will expire.

In total, since the launch of the scheme on 14th November 2022 until 23rd September 2024, a total of 403.5 million beverage containers have been collected.

Out of these, the majority (357.4 million) were collected from the reverse vending machines, and 46.1 million were collected through the manual systems found in catering establishments and retail stores.

In recent days, BCRS have been criticised by the Association of Catering Establishment’s (ACE) Secretary, Matthew Pace,  when voicing restaurant owners’ frustrations over the current collection system. Specifically, Mr Pace remarked that the system is “laughable” as restaurants have to store seven different types of waste in their storerooms.

Since then, the company has addressed and acknowledged its concerns by pointing to the free manual collection service offered to registered catering establishments, among initiatives.