Although Malta was not the only country that produced more waste over the Easter period, people should be made more aware of this phenomenon because the island was so small, Wasteserv CEO Vince Magri told The Times.

Wasteserv, the company responsible for waste management in Malta, is therefore recommending that people should buy and use items having less packaging.

Its waste treatment engineer, Mary Grace Micallef, said: "The consumer is paying for the packaging which is then all thrown away. The more packaging an item has, the more money you are spending on waste material.

"One should re-use materials as much as possible, but when it is not possible to re-use them, they should be placed in appropriate bring-in sites containers to be recycled," she said.

Sending electronic Easter cards instead of paper cards also reduces the amount of waste and giving environmentally-friendly presents, such as a "tree 4U" instead of the usual Easter egg, also helps, she added.

"In Wales, people are being encouraged to make their own Easter treats instead of buying Easter eggs. Children will love helping to make chocolate cornflake cakes or creating Easter bunny-shaped biscuits. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. Each of us has to play a part if we want to reduce waste," she said.

Ms Micallef said that over the past two Easter periods, it was clear that the amount of waste was higher than usual.

"Comparing the amount of mixed solid waste generated in March 2005 with April 2006, an increase of 537.94 tons was noticed.

"It is very difficult to state that the increase in waste was purely due to Easter celebrations because there can be other contributors, such as the number of tourists in Malta and local feasts. But the increase in waste during Easter was noticed even in other European countries.

"Comparing the quantity of mixed solid waste generated in January 2005 with March 2005, there was an increase of over 1,072 tons," she said.