S.L. 549.134 Art. 2Interpretation. 

(1) In these regulations, unless the context requires otherwise:

"Act" means the Environment Protection Act;

"Agency" means the Circular Economy Malta established by virtue of the Circular Economy Malta (Establishment) Order;

"Authority" means the Environment and Resources Authority established under article 6 of the Act and includes any body or other person acting on its behalf under powers delegated by the Authority under the Act;

"barcode" means the global trade item number (GTIN), the international article number (EAN) or the quick response (QR) code for the beverage in a beverage container;

"beverage" means any of the beverages listed in the First Schedule;

"beverage container" means any container of a beverage which beverage container is of a type listed in the Second Schedule;

"catering establishment" means an establishment providing hospitality and food services in the territory where beverages in beverage containers are consumed by consumers on its premises;

"catering undertaking" means any person who makes available beverages in beverage containers on the market within a catering establishment;

"Chief Executive" means the Chief Executive of the Agency established by virtue of article 6 of the Circular Economy Malta

(Establishment) Order;

"clearing centre" means the centre operated by the operator where collected beverage containers are transmitted from redemption locations for final receipt and processing for the purposes of recycling;

"collection" means the gathering of empty beverage containers, including the preliminary sorting and preliminary storage thereof for the purposes of transport to the clearance centre pursuant to Part III or to a producer of beverages placing, or intending to place, refillable containers on the market pursuant to Part IV, and "collected" shall be interpreted accordingly;

"consumer" means every person who acquires, whether gratuitously or for a consideration, a beverage in a beverage container for consumption;

"deposit" means the deposit to be paid upon the purchase of a beverage in a beverage container imposed pursuant to regulation 15 and regulation 21 respectively, which deposit shall be of a value which is not less than the value indicated in the Third Schedule;

"distributor" means any person who makes available on the market beverages in beverage containers on a wholesale level to another person;

"environmental contribution" means such contribution that a person is to pay the Agency in line with the polluter pays principle under these regulations to mitigate damages to the environment;

"gated event" means an event organized by any private organizer, which shall include both profit-making and non-profit legal bodies and governmental bodies, including but not limited to festivals, concerts, fairs, sports events and any other event where beverages shall be sold in single use containers, which are organized at any area designated for such events and which shall be accessible through one

(1) or more designated areas;

"licence agreement" means the agreement between the Agency and the operator pursuant to sub-regulation (4) of regulation 4;

"making available on the market" means any form of supply of a beverage, in a beverage container for distribution, consumption or use on the market packed in containers within the territory in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge, and "make available on the market" shall be interpreted accordingly;

"market specific product" means a product that has its own unique barcode generated for the specific use of the territory, and which can be registered by one producer;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for the environment;

"non-market specific product" means any product which does not fulfil the criteria of a market specific product;

"operator" means the person licensed by the Agency to operate the Scheme pursuant to regulation 4;

"placement data" means the raw data that may be required by the Agency from the operator in order to ascertain the successful operation of the Scheme;

"placing on the market" means the first making available of a beverage in a beverage container on the market within the territory, and "place on the market" shall be interpreted accordingly;

"producer" means any person importing, bottling, canning, or otherwise filling beverages in beverage containers intended to be placed on the market in the territory, irrespective of the bottling, canning, filling or importing technique used, and irrespective of how the beverage in beverage container is placed on the market, including:

(i) placing on the market by means of distance contracts as defined in regulation 2 of the Consumer Rights

Regulations; and

(ii) placing on the market directly to private households or to consumers other than private households, including by means of distance contracts as defined in regulation 2 of the Consumer Rights Regulations;

"raw data" means the original data provided by economic operators during the placement process prior to any analysis and, or processing or modification; "recycling" means the reprocessing in a production process of beverage containers for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery;

"redemption location" means a place, fixed or mobile, where beverage containers shall be returned for collection purposes;

"refillable container" means a beverage container in relation to which a system is in place in the territory for its reuse, where the producer has obtained an exemption from the Scheme in terms of regulation 19;

"retailer" means any person who makes available on the market beverages in beverage containers at the retail level to consumers in the territory, and includes street hawkers, as defined in the Trading

Licenses Regulations;

"retail establishment" means an establishment operated by a retailer;

"reuse" means any operation whereby a beverage container, which has been conceived and designed to accomplish within its life cycle a minimum number of trips or rotations, is refilled or used for the same purpose for which it was conceived, with or without the support of auxiliary products present on the market enabling the beverage container to be refilled, and such reused beverage container will become packaging waste when no longer subject to reuse;

"RVM" means an automated reverse vending machine with compaction which refunds the deposit value to consumers;

"Scheme" means the system set up by Part III for the establishment and operation of a beverage container refund system;

"single use container" is a beverage container which is not a refillable container;

"supply chain" means the chain of supply of the beverage from producer to consumer;

"territory" means Malta as defined in article 124 of the Constitution of Malta;

"third party RVM operator" means any person, including the Government of Malta and any of its Ministries, departments, local authorities and agencies, that purchases, installs and operates an RVM in accordance with regulation 18(9) of these regulations.

(2) Any other term or expression used in these regulations which is defined in article 2 of the Act shall, unless otherwise expressly defined in these regulations or the context otherwise requires, have the same meaning as is assigned to it in the said article 2 of the Act.