Bottle recycling rules will destroy Malta's craft drinks sector, importers warn

Malta’s craft beer and cider scene will dry up if a bottle recycling scheme run by beverage sector kingpins is not changed, small-scale importers and manufacturers fear. In a letter addressed to Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia, smaller players in the beverage space say that the rules will price them out of business, by treating them in the same way as polluters that place millions of beverage containers on the market.   Their worry stems from a requirement that will see the recycling scheme’s operator, BCRS Ltd, receive €100 for each individual beverage placed on the local market. The result, small stakeholders say, is that it will cost just as much to register a craft beverage imported in tiny quantities as it will to register a mass-produced beverage such as Coca-Cola or Cisk. “A small importer may place 300 different products on the market per annum, while a large importer may only import five, mass-market products but these could constitute millions of beverage containers,” they tell the minister in a letter leaked to Times of Malta. Signatories include Malta’s most prominent craft drinks importers and retailers, as well as manufacturers of local craft beers such as Lord...