The bins and the fines

The Times reported (September 1) that stiffer fines for littering were to be considered. It would seem to be pretty much a case of putting the cart before the horse if penalties were to be given, but adequate garbage collection facilities were not in place and operational. Should littering contraventions be restricted to the duties of "wardens/traffic wardens" or could the police perhaps offer a supporting role and be given the same authority to book offenders?

Particularly noticeable in Malta is the lack of police presence as in "walking the beat". This is highly needed in the St Julian's and Sliema areas which are saturated with young tourists-students who intermingle with our family-type tourists and the young-at-heart variety. St Julian's and Sliema have a great number of language schools, hotels, self-catering apartments, restaurants, bars, clubs, beach clubs, shops, etc. and both areas suffer tremendously from noise pollution, litter and traffic pollution.

Noise and litter pollution are two areas where both the police force and the warden system can be effective. The question is: How effective? Sadly there are not enough litter bins to collect the rubbish, thus making rubbish collection facilities inadequate.

On weekday mornings, at approximately 8.30, a shabby open-topped truck parks, blocking the road to Upper Ross Street (corner with St George's Road), alongside HSBC bank St Julian's. About three scantily dressed middle-aged, perspiring (naturally as it is hot!) men can be seen collecting and tipping rubbish from the bins onto the truck while tourists (at exactly the same spot) are also waiting their excursion transport, behind the stink of this rubbish truck, its exhaust fumes and, of course, the rubbish that does not quite make the target. Does this project a good image for tourists to take home? Fortunately, most of our tourists are not critical and probably accept this as being the Maltese way. Is it not possible to have rubbish collected at 6 a.m., when tourists are not usually up and about and when traffic is not rush hour?

Unfortunately, there are not too many areas for placing recyclable receptacles for glass, tin and paper. (One such receptacle has just been placed in the middle of the main road in Birkirkara. There are alternate wide areas where to place it, instead of in the scant parking area on the road!). In St Julian's, there is an enormous car park at the top of St George's Road where a few of these containers could be placed.

Perhaps there could even be a glass and tin receptacle placed just beneath the ramp at Spinola Bay. This is an area where many young people gather and produce litter, buying their eats and drinks from various outlets and then discarding their rubbish wherever they can.

Bins and recyclable materials containers need to be placed at carefully chosen and strategic points. Once this infrastructure is in place then perhaps the police and wardens will be in a far better position to enforce littering fines.

Traffic pollution is mainly caused by buses (older models), trucks and old cars.

Many restaurants and bars are either situated on St George's Road or branch off it. This road is also susceptible to many traffic jams, particularly caused by double-parking in the area. This must make having a meal, or just taking a walk, a pretty unhealthy experience. It would be great to see St George's Road become a pedestrian zone but to do so would seem a very expensive task, requiring a great deal of planning and analysis. Some of the traffic flow could be reduced, by creating a multi-level, subterranean car park, in the Tigulio area. St George's Road is also badly in need of resurfacing.

This letter may seem to be critical but it is an attempt at trying to improve the image that our little island has to offer. Again, this criticism underlines that we are mostly backwards in our environment care-taking role. This is something that has fallen into sad neglect over decades and maintenance has been lacking. Obviously, Rome was not built in a day, so it would be unrealistic to see dramatic change in too short a time but this should not be an obstacle to the objective, to making Malta a cleaner place and encouraging tourists and locals alike to be respectful of our island.