St Aloysius College participates in environment project

Two 'burning' issues chosen by Edward Caruana, Claire Camilleri and all the Science 1A students of St Aloysius College's Sixth Form, within the ambit of the school's participation in the EU Comenius project were the waste problem from an environmental perspective and illegal immigration from a humanitarian point of view.

Other ventures taken on by the students included the preparation of a Power Point presentation and other visual aids, such as charts, on dumping, the invitation of a number of key stakeholders in the field of waste management, notably Ing. Mario Schembri from AIS Consultancy, and a visit, organised in conjunction with the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment (MRAE), to Maghtab's waste disposal facilities.

Other classes participating were Science 1B and a number of arts classes. Alan Deidun, Isabelle Borg and Therese Friggieri guided the students throughout the course.

A taste of waste

The aim of this study was to bring the present situation of waste dumping in Malta to the fore. Certain areas were located and monitored weekly over a period of a month. Each week a number of readings were taken, consisting of the area under study and weight, type and nature of the waste.

The results obtained were then processed, compared and analysed. For convenience, Malta was split up into regions - north, south, east, west and centre. The data were then standardised to enable comparison and results obtained were processed to elicit data spanning these points:

Area versus mass

It resulted that the most widespread dumping and littering took place in the northern region of the island, with dumping in the west being the most contained.

The pattern was slightly different when taking mass of waste per unit area affected into consideration. In this regard, studies in the west noted the most significant amounts of dumped waste, while dumping and littering in the north was on an almost negligible scale.

Quantity of waste per region

By considering mass of waste recorded per unit area, and taking a comparable area unit for each region, one could appraise the absolute situation with regard to dumping and littering in different regions, in cases of both mass and spread.

The south region was found to house the most waste by mass, per area studied. The most common form of waste disposal recorded in this region was dumping, with only small disturbances due to litter.

The nature of this dumped waste spanned a range of materials, from metal (disused cars and household appliances) to foam (mattresses...), rubber (tyres), plastic (in various forms - including, but not solely, plastic bags), and old furniture. The presence of copious amounts of fabric was also recorded.

Marsascala, and especially its outskirts, is the locality with the highest concentration of waste, with the predominant waste types recorded being foam, metal, plastic and rubble.

This location may have resulted to have the highest amounts of dumped waste due to any combination of the following reasons. The presence of a high population density in contained areas of the region, interspersed with large expanses of uninhabited land, definitely contributes to this.

This uninhabited space, together with the absence of sufficient artificial lighting in certain areas, facilitates the undetected act of dumping.

The absence of numerous factories and tourist venues, and thus a lack of monitoring by the authorities, also contributes to this. One may also argue that there is a lack of awareness regarding environmental issues in the region, due to a number of anthropogenic factors.

The northern areas of the island proved to have the least waste by mass. This phenomenon may be attributed to various issues, the most predominant being the fact that the north is primarily a tourist area, and that those involved in this industry are obliged to keep the area clean.

Also, a large percentage of its local inhabitants only live there during the summer. The strong presence of green NGOs and areas of conservation, together with the inaccessibility of the more remote areas of the region, also help to prevent illegal dumping.

It is interesting to note also, however, that a higher incidence of littering was recorded in the northern and central areas than other regions.

Quality of waste

The type of waste recorded in each area of each region was also noted. These data were processed, taking the three most common waste types by incidence in each area, to obtain a more complete picture of the situation.

The highest proportion of dumped material consisted of rubble and construction material, metal items (in various forms) and plastic objects.

Other waste types present in smaller, however still relatively substantial proportions, included disused wood (boats, furniture...) and also foam materials - the latter being especially evident in western regions.

Dumping also seems to be a more common problem than littering in these islands; possibly due to the fact that the latter problem is easier to attend to and control.

Detrimental effects

The dumping of wastes into our environment is detrimental both anthropogenically and environmentally. A number of human activities are compromised by the presence of waste, to the extent that even everyday activities may become perilous, with wastes acting as vectors for pathogens.

The unsightly nature of areas affected by such uncontrolled dumping may also serve as a deterrent to tourists. The percolation of polluted water from such affected areas to groundwater stores may prove catastrophic to farmers who supply such water to their livestock or plants.

One final ill-effect, which should be given its due weight, is that the cleaning of such areas is a costly exercise, where funds go towards reacquiring a clean environment, as opposed to eliciting net improvements.

Environmental issues arising from such a situation are multifaceted and span the whole range of severity. Small-scale effects on specific faunal individuals, such as choking on plastic bags and ingestion of alkaline batteries, may have an effect primarily on an aesthetic, anthropogenic level, due to the presence of rotting animal corpses (which are also vectors of disease) in areas frequented by man.

More serious effects are the pollution of soils and aquatic habitats. In each of these cases, the leaching or run-off of polluted water (due to the presence of rusting iron, heavy metals from batteries etc... which mixes with rainwater) may result in the retaining of toxins within food webs, until these reach fatal levels in higher animals, in a phenomenon known as biomagnification.

This, together with more direct effects of dumping (as are trampling and disturbance of natural habitats) may result in the loss of biodiversity, and also to the replacement of species indigenous to such areas by more robust and possibly less valuable, organisms.

How to deal with it

A number of government initiatives have entered into play in the past years. Substantial fines both for littering and dumping exist. Alongside such a scheme, a free waste collection scheme exists for bulky household waste (old appliances...), run by local councils.

The introduction of an eco-contribution on white goods and other items which may pose environmental hazards, was another step in the right direction, whereby individuals are offered a cash incentive to return used goods to the authorities. This also acts as a source of funds, dedicated to the effective and correct disposal of waste products.

One should also note that between Lm150,000 and Lm200,000 are spent annually on the clearing up of such sites, in a project implemented by the Works Division.

Various awareness schemes have also been embarked on in recent years, ranging from informative billboards, to the setting up of the Progett Skart Website, which aims at aiding teachers to instil strong environmental awareness in students following courses in primary and secondary education.

A possible method of continuing to improve the way the country is dealing with its waste is the development of exchange programmes, whereby used products are swapped for new ones (such as is done at present with empty soft-drink bottles which are exchanged with filled ones at a lower price).

Although a number of initiatives to keep Malta clean are already being implemented, it is imperative that more is done to ensure these are successful. We must continue to educate ourselves and be aware of the impact that inappropriately disposed of waste can have on our country.

This message needs to be sent out in a way that will reach all of our nation's population, and practices devised to facilitate suitable waste disposal.