12
The Malta Independent | Thursday 17 September 2015
The contribution of Technology in Recycling Malta
F
acebook is known of empowering NGOS, any other movements and citizens by giving them an opportunity to express themselves. Some take a step further. Maroushka Zammit is founder of the popular Facebook page Recycle Malta. In this interview she explains how this group was created as an initiative to contribute in helping the environment. Why Recycle Malta? When did it all start? Around three years ago I was surfing the net, and noticed friends on Facebook posting requests for appliances and other items for people in need. I saw that this happened on a regular basis and it was then that it crossed my mind to start a Facebook group. The main idea was to help one another by saving waste and indirectly help the environment and to give people a break from money, therefore saving money too. The idea was born and based on the international Freecycle concept, which I then adapted and ‘personalised’ for Malta. The concept was that of an online pre-waste recycling site, where people could pass on their items free of charge and share it online with whoever they want, and whoever interested simply goes to collect the item; an online free to collector site. People have another option, to post a request of any item which they need. Within hours of creating the group, it caught the attention of the media and a couple of hours later, we were up and running. I wasn’t sure it would work but gladly all my doubts soon subsided. How many followers did the group have at the beginning and what is the current amount? Would you have an average estimates of the amounts of likes the page gets per week/month?
The Facebook group grew fast, well into the hundreds in the first few days and just kept on growing and has shown no signs of slowing down. Today, our Recycle Malta group enjoys a good 25,000 members, something we are very proud of. We are currently growing at a rate of around 1,000 new members every 6-8 weeks, much than we have ever thought. We have another Facebook Page called Recycle Malta Community, where we share project ideas and articles of interest related to the theme of upcycling/reusing/repurposing. The Community page has just roughly 3,000 followers. We are starting to give more visibility to this group as we are always surprised by the creative ideas which our members come up with. This group is a means of enhancing an individual’s creativity by using recycled materials. We want this to be another success story. Recycle Malta is not just a Facebook group. We have invested our energies in setting up a website, www.recyclemalta.org with close to 600 members as well as a Facebook group for Gozo called Recycle Gozo with 794 members, and generally seems more popular with ex pat residents rather than locals. Can you describe the work involved in maintaining Recycle Malta popular and ongoing?
http://recyclemalta.org/ which is financially funded by myself. Although our sites are free to use, there are running costs, both in terms of time and funds, especially where the website is concerned. This brought us to create a donations button on our website, and opened up the option for business sponsors to help us maintain and grow our initiative. We have had a couple of temporary sponsors so far and always ready to welcome more. With the help of sponsors, we hope to be able to keep doing what we are doing and do more with our initiative. I do have ideas as to what could be done but sponsorship would be required to take us further at this point. Are there particular stories which you can share with us? We’ve seen all kinds of items, from the ordinary every day household item to the more unlikely and unusual. Interestingly, some people claim to have their homes full of items they obtained via our sites and we have even seen vehicles go via our group. This surely brings lots of satisfaction to us as our aim is being reached. Running the group involves a lot of time and I could not cope doing it alone. There are daily messages to check, daily administrators’ meeting chats, members to add and more. Our group is 24/7 and needs heavy monitoring. The Recycle Malta group can boast to have five administrators, all of whom are volunteers and I also take care of our Facebook page and website, with the help of our webmaster. Would you imagine the concept of ‘Recycle Malta’ possible without the use of technology? Since we operate solely online, none of this would have been possible without technology. It’s given us a free platform to work
and connect people and help our fellow man and the environment. Technology has proved to be a positive tool to make people aware that their belongings can be gifted freely, instead of throwing everything away. Do you intend to increase the kind of social media used? Yes? No?...and Why? We have quite some visibility on different social media platforms. Our Facebook page is synced to Twitter and we have presence on other social media sites for more visibility. We currently have no further technological expansion plans and wish to focus on maximising on what we already have. Being a voluntary group, brings restrictions. We have a website
Any future projects in the pipeline for the Administrators of Recycle Malta? Recycle Malta is a very fast moving group and each day brings a new surprise. A recycled crafts competition was organised and this has helped us grow. Our growth is, however, mainly due to word of mouth, which in itself is amazing. Our efforts have successfully helped to give people ideas on how to reuse their items, inspired more recycled arts and crafts and encouraged people to give and help others and maybe unknowingly save waste in the process. Raising awareness is very powerful and social media has been instrumental. We wanted to make a difference, and we achieved it.
Another eGovernment service to be introduced in the Justice Sector
A
fter the launch of MyActs last July, last week, a new eGovernment service, allowing legal practitioners to file cases online, before the Administrative Review Tribunal, was announced. The online service is being made available to legal professions who are legally empowered to present cases before this tribunal. The system therefore is aligned to Chapter 490, The Administrative Justice Act, which provides a legal framework for citizens and commercial companies to formerly register their complaints when they disagree with the administrative decision taken from any public entity. To date, any lawyer and legal procurator, presented the registration of such complaint to the Administrative Review Tribunal by physically going to court and manually presenting their appli-
cation as well as paying the necessary fees during registry opening hours. With this system, which will become available as from the 1st October 2015, lawyers and legal
procurators can easily present their case from their offices without having to remain within the confines of the Court’s registry hours. Legal professionals that already have access to the Courts
Online Case Management system will automatically have access to this eService using their eID and legal professionals that are not subscribed can visit the myGov portal (myGov.mt) and subscribe to the “Courts eServices (Legal Professionals)” When using this new service Court applications are drafted and signed by a lawyer or legal procurator, as normal, but then scanned and uploaded by the practitioner into the system. The legal professional digital accepts
the submission and the total costs (registry fees) are immediately calculated and presented to the user. Once these are approved, a secure payment gateway window pops up, allowing the user to pay by debit/credit card. Justice Minister Dr.Owen Bonnici stated that Government is giving more importance to citizens, by providing electronic services to facilitate the lodging of their complaint when they do not agree with a decision taken related to administrative acts such as Tax or VAT bills or other decisions such as those pertaining to licences, permits, and warrants. These decisions would have been taken by a ministry, government department or any local authority or corporation. This service, which will be available as from the 1st October 2015, will simplify the procedure and allow the Courts to expedite the processing of case information.
13
The Malta Independent | Thursday 17 September 2015
MITA Communications and PR Team
The Malta Independent ICT Feature
I
f you are into recycling or you’re looking for a particular item, Recycle Malta is the group you should join. A concept based on the international Freecycle concept, was adapted by the group’s administrators to sooth the local market. An interview by the ICT feature team was held with Maroushka Zammit,
the main founder of this popular group. Lawyers and legal procurators as from the 1st October of this year can benefit from a new eGovernment service, which will allow them to file cases online, before the Administrative Review Tribunal. The online service is being made available to legal professions who are legally em-
powered to present cases before this tribunal. An overview of the service is being outlined in the article. Another article featured in this section is one related to socialsecurity.gov.mt, as the site is offering an important service related to the various pensions, including retirement, noncontributory age, invalidity and
Easier access for social security services online I nternet has become a phenomenon nobody seems to can live without. This has brought changes into commercial needs to any business, including Government and the services it offers through the various departments, where possibly most services are expected to be offered online. Where Government services are concerned, the amount of individuals and businesses turning to online Government services is on the increase, one of the main reasons being time consumption. Certain services offered online avoid individuals to seek going to the Department concerned and form long queues for a 5 minute service. The Malta Informationa Technology Agency (MITA) has
helped Government build websites specifically aimed at creating more access to online services to ultimately be used by citizens. Among these services , is a recent service which started being offered a few months ago, that of the marriage grant online. This can be accessed from the site socialsecurity.gov.mt. From January 2015 to date, 366 couples applied for this grant online. In this case, a couple can apply for the grant online through a form after recieving a notification from the social sevices. However other important services are accessible from the same site and are available to the general public 24 hours every day. socialsecurity.gov.mt offers another important service related to the various pensions, including retirement, non-
contributory age, invalidity and widow pensions. Most of these services, like the marriage grant are to be applied for after a notification recieved by the Social Services. Aftet the notification is recieved, all the process related to the pensions can be done online. In this case the individual can do everything from the comfort of his/her home avoiding tavelling and waiting. There is also lower risk of loosing important documentation. A valid service offered on the site is the registration of the social security number, which is vital to give one’s contributions for the social security. MITA in collaboration with various Ministries currently embarking on an educational campaign to create further awareness on Govrnment’s
online services. Public Services Online is a campaign partially funded by the European Union –
widow pensions. All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature
the European Social Fund and it is aimed at increasing the use of online Government services.