More than 300 fines for littering and dumping have been handed down by police officers, local wardens and Mepa inspectors in a crackdown on contraventions that started on August 12, and the successful exercise will now continue indefinitely.

The fines ranged from €11.65 to €2,562.30 for contraventions that included minor ones like throwing cigarette butts in the streets to serious breaches such as leaving building sites unsecured.

The multidisciplinary team monitored various problem areas selected by the local councils in order to catch people red-handed.

Sometimes the monitoring was carried out by plainclothes officers, especially in areas such as bring-in sites, so that offenders were intercepted rather than scared away.

But Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said, who is heading the enforcement operation, insisted that no entrapment was involved and that the operation also included the issuing of warnings in order to raise awareness about the problem of littering.

"This was not about making money," he insisted.

One woman in San Ġwann was caught dumping a sofa and many others were caught without the appropriate equipment for picking up their pets' excrement.

According to Dr Said, the operation was highly successful, not because so many fines were handed out but because word of mouth spread rapidly and within a few days the number of contraventions in the monitored areas was reduced drastically.

"Enforcement works," he insisted.

An awareness campaign is now being conceived in order to educate the public about the illegality of littering and dumping - television promotion is to be expected for the winter schedule.

Dr Said said Malta boasts of various cleaning services, including a bring-in site for every 400 households, open skips, bulky refuse collection services and a number of other types of garbage collection.

What is needed now, he said, is the cooperation of the public - and a change in the mentality.

"This is not a temporary exercise... we now want to increase the momentum," Dr Said promised.

The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs is planning to introduce around 1,200 new dustbins with ashtrays, to be placed in problem areas such as bus stops.

Another move that is being discussed is to create some sort of financial incentive to collect and return plastic bottles for recycling - similarly to what was in place previously with glass bottles.

More cameras are planned for areas such as traffic lights or traffic islands so that people throwing rubbish from their cars will be caught on tape and fined.

The law does not distinguish between biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, since all of it can be unsightly.

"We want to pass on the message that littering and dumping are serious contraventions - even things that may seem insignificant, like chewing gum," Dr Said said.

The public is encouraged to use Mepa's hotline 2069 9595 to report contraventions.