Nigel Sams, St Paul's Bay
Littering is an offence
I notice an increase in the amount of plastic drink bottles littering the island and now washing up with the already unacceptable amount of man-made rubbish ruining much of the shoreline of this lovely island.
The EU ruling on the use of plastic drink bottles may work in parts of Europe where strict anti-littering rules and hefty fines are enforced but it seems to me that enforcement wardens are as rare as "hen's teeth" in many areas of Malta. At least, the glass drinks bottles had a return value and were collected.
It is said that tourists and students are major contributors to littering and this in many areas may be true. However, on arrival in many of the tourist areas what do the visitors see? Plastic bottles, overflowing bins and litter everywhere. Hardly a Littering Is An Offence warning sign or a warden to be seen, which surely encourages a "nobody cares in Malta" attitude.
My wife and I often swim on the left of the Gillieru area in St Paul's Bay. That's when the prevailing wind is not depositing flotsam in the area. The area to the right of the Gillieru is a real eyesore, where the wind has deposited plastic bottles, bags and other festering rubbish trapped between the mooring lines of the small tender boats, spoiling an otherwise picture postcard setting.
Are the local councils so cash strapped that they cannot afford a few hours to clear this flotsam?
7 Comments
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Denis Catania
Jul 26th 2008, 04:53
F Bonello has a point, one weekend a year is all it takes. Big companies can have their employees participate. Band clubs, church groups and so on. All Malta has to do is hand out bags. It works in some cities in the US. We also have Adopt A Highway where companies adopt a stretch of highway and keep it clean, some pay a company to clean it at their expense, some have employees volunteer to clean that part of the highway. You put the company's name on a sign, telling you what company cleans that stretch of highway. I try to give those companies my business, when I can.
Vivienne Critelli
Jul 26th 2008, 00:26
Love visiting Malta now and again......Beautiful island......Sea like no other.........yet.......I have never in all my travels ever seen litter all over the place.....land & sea......how sickening it is and heartbreaking to see mindless people who thinks that the Island is one big garbage place.........Receptacles should be all over the place.........Emptied out daily.........Wardens to issue high fines....the fines will pay for the Wardens salaries.......When it hits people's pocket maybe...........they either throw their garbage in receptacles on sea and land.......or......take it home with them and dump in their own personal garbage can.
Phil Pryce
Jul 25th 2008, 17:09
Yes, it's not all tourists you know. Most of the visitors to the Ta' Qali Trade Fair were locals and they left huge amounts of litter all around the area. I myself witnessed a 'gentleman' driving a black Toyota (SHI 128 to name and shame!!!) open his window and through his litter out. His small son was jumping all over the back seat at the time as they sped along the Regional Road, but that's another issue altogether!!
F Bonello
Jul 25th 2008, 13:46
Why not try organize a few groups of people going round the island collecting plastic bottles etc from round abouts, open spaces and even streets? Hundreds of tons will be collected in this way and many of these plastic bottles will not finish in the sea and other places
agrech
Jul 25th 2008, 10:45
At times garbage is pushed to one corner of a bay by the currents. This would be the cheapest and easiest way of getting rid of it but for some reason, the Local Councils don't care to clean it up.
If the mayors do some driving around their respective towns or viallages, they can see what's needed and they should take action.
Madaline Biggs
Jul 25th 2008, 10:42
I have recently been in the Netherlands and noticed that LIDL there has a collection of its own soft drink bottles. There is a machine in which you feed your empty bottles which in turn issues a receipt redeemable when you pay for your purchases. How come this is not active in Malta. I am sure that it would be as much a success as the returning of the old glass bottles was.
Robert Garmston
Jul 25th 2008, 10:16
I stay in a residential area when I visit. Few, if any tourists or students live locally yet the signs of dumping are everywhere.....household and building rubble. I LOVE Malta and it's people, but come on, I must say that the locals bear most of the responsibilty themselves. I have witnessed it myself on many occasions and have written to this newspaper before on this subject. So get your own act together.....visitors will then see a "clean" Island as well as it's welcoming population and as a result will respect that.......hopefully.