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The Malta Environment and Planning Authority, at the centre of a campaign to remove from the market canned soft drinks in contravention of the law which regulates the bottling of soft drinks in refillable glass bottles, will have to look closer to home in its mission to confiscate the illegal canned drinks.
As photos taken by MaltaToday confirm, the dispensing machine in Hall B at the Licensing Department, located exactly behind the MEPA complex, was freely dispensing Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta in cans this very week.
This newspaper is informed that dozens of dispensing machines in several government departments were filled with illegal, canned soft drinks.
According to Legal Notice 158 of 1998, carbonated non-alcoholic drinks with no more than two per cent of alcohol are to be packaged in refillable glass bottles subject to a deposit-and-return scheme.
In recent weeks, MEPA launched an intensive joint campaign with the police force, confiscating 140,000 bottles and 2,000 cans of drinks. The action prompted the ire of energy drink importers Logic International, which had two and a half containers of Red Bull energy drink confiscated. Energy drinks in Malta are currently coded as soft drinks. The enforcement action was taken six years after the legal notice first came into force, just a day after Malta’s soft drinks giants – Farsons and General Soft Drinks – joined forces in the creation of the Malta Association of Soft Drinks Producers, calling for action against the illegal importation of canned soft drinks.
MEPA and the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment told MaltaToday the enforcement action is envisaged to continue in the coming days. MEPA spokesperson Sylvana Debono added a cordial appreciation for the information passed on by this newspaper on the illegal cans being dispensed in a government department right under the MEPA building.
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