Nearing the end of a two-week holiday in Malta, we experienced even more delights on the island than our previous visit 16 years ago.
If there has been one blight on our visit, it has been the phenomenal level of casual littering, from the streets of Valletta to the shores around Qawra and Buġibba, to the country lanes around Golden Bay. Notable exceptions have been the open countryside far from tarmacked road, to the alleys of Mdina and Rabat where a higher sense of civic pride appeared to prevail.
We saw locals and tourists alike casually drop or ignore accidental litter. But who started this behaviour? Is it a trait inherited from the days of British rule, and their [still] liberal attitude to litter? Or was it brought in from outsiders, perhaps Italians? North Europeans are not immune to this malaise either, but one does observe more restraint and sense of civic duty among the latter.
While the Maltese authorities cannot be blamed for litter, they should recognise they contribute to the problem, with insufficient bins (evidenced by their overflowing in ‘popular’ locations), and an almost complete lack of recycling bins. Meanwhile, the National Aquarium preaches to its visitors about marine debris, the importance of recycling and to stop adding to overflowing bins.
As tourists, we have done our utmost to play a positive part, our children abhor litter and point it out to us everywhere we go, it’s like a sorry litany.
At times, they can’t resist the urge and pick up random litter and take it to the nearest bin (sometimes only a few steps away). To them it is like a treasure hunt, giving an immediate sense of satisfaction. We even played a game of diving to pick up litter off the shore of Buġibba. Who really wants to snorkel around being jarred by sweet wrappers and random jetsam?
Malta and its vital tourist industry would benefit from a heightened public awareness through TV advertising (why not get each channel to provide free slots by way of support?), leaflets available at tourist information centres and handed out with each hotel room hire, better recycling facilities, an ongoing and regular community clean-up schedule involving civic and school groups.
Children would benefit enormously from learning to take care of their immediate environment and become the custodians of the future, also laying the foundation for caring for the rest of the world.
Malta needs a champion to stop this rot from spoiling the islands.