VALLETTA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Maltese government on Monday launched a one-million-euro (1.09 million U.S. dollars) subsidy scheme to encourage households to ditch single-use plastics and instead install a water purification system.
Environment Minister Miriam Dalli said the scheme, named "Be Water Smart," is aimed at reducing the amount of plastic bottles used, which stands at around 500 per household per year.
Launching the scheme, Dalli said the initiative is expected to reduce plastic bottle usage by around 3 million per year. It is part of the country's consumption reduction strategy for single-use plastics in line with the waste management plan and waste reduction efforts.
The scheme offers three types of grants: "Water Guard," which offers a subsidy of 40 percent of the purchase price and installation cost of water filtration systems with no wastewater, capped at 100 euros; "RO Wave," which covers reverse osmosis systems without wastewater return, offering a 15.25 percent grant rate with a cap of 100 euros; and "RO Recycle," which is for reverse osmosis systems that return wastewater to residential water storage, with a grant rate of 40 percent and capped at 300 euros.
These grants replace an older scheme that provided a 15.25 percent rebate on the purchase price and installation, capped at 70 euros. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollar) ■