S.L. 549.134 Art. 8Functions and powers of the operator. 

(1) Without prejudice to any other function imposed on the operator in terms of the licence agreement, the operator shall have the following functions and powers:

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(a) to maintain and make available a register relating to the participants of the Scheme;

(b) to establish and operate a clearing centre;

(c) to supply and operate RVMs in accordance with the criteria established in the licence agreement;

(d) to take responsibility of all the collected single use containers;

(e) to establish and provide the necessary IT solution and infrastructure to monitor and control the operations of each redemption location;

(f) to make arrangements for the gathering of single use containers from the redemption locations to the clearing centre;

(g) to sell all the processed beverage containers as recyclable material, directly and/or through an authorised entity, and to provide the Agency with documentation to that effect in order for the said material to count towards Malta’s recycling targets;

(h) to carry out procurement in a manner that is transparent and non-discriminatory;

(i) to establish and provide the necessary solutions and infrastructure to monitor the Scheme, and to report any irregularities to the Agency;

(j) to maintain and operate a separate deposit refund account recording all financial movements of receipts and payments of the deposits, pursuant to regulation 10;

(k) to finance and participate in public campaigns determined by the operator to ensure the success of the Scheme; and

(l) without prejudice to sub-regulation (3) of regulation 6 of the Extended Producer Responsibility

Framework Regulations, to cover the following costs for the beverage containers listed in the Second Schedule that are considered to be single-use plastic products as defined in regulation 3 of the Single-Use Plastic Framework Regulations, in so far as not already included, by 31 December 2024:

(i) the costs of the awareness raising measures referred to in regulation 12 of the Single-Use Plastic

Framework Regulations;

(ii) the costs of waste collection as defined in regulation 4 of the Waste Regulations for those products that are discarded in public collection systems, including the infrastructure and its operations, and the subsequent transport and treatment of that waste;

(iii) the costs of cleaning up litter resulting from those products and the subsequent transport and treatment of that litter:

Provided that the costs to be covered referred to in this paragraph shall not exceed the costs that are necessary to provide the services referred to therein in a cost-efficient way and shall be established in a transparent way between the Agency, the operator and any other actors concerned:

Provided further that the costs of cleaning up litter shall be limited to activities undertaken by public authorities or on their behalf. Such activities shall be subject to prior approval by the Agency. The calculation methodology shall be developed in a way that allows for the costs of cleaning up litter to be established in a proportionate way. To minimise administrative costs, the Minister in consultation with the Authority and the Agency may determine financial contributions towards the costs of cleaning up litter by setting appropriate multiannual fixed amounts.

(2) Upon return to a redemption location, single use containers shall become the property of the operator who shall be entitled to keep the proceeds from the sale of the material from collected single use containers.

(3) The operators shall not share any commercially sensitive data, including but not limited to, data which identifies the relationship between specific product barcodes, quantities placed on the market and their respective importer and producer, relating to producers, distributors, retailers and, or catering undertakings it holds by virtue of its functions in accordance with these regulations with its directors, shareholders, partners, members or founders, as the case may be.