In its ‘50 years ago’ column, The Sunday Times of Malta carried a rather important item that appeared on September 17, 1967 and was about “Efforts to keep Malta clean”.

Half a century later we are still being faced with litter louts who do not care about the cleanliness of our country.

The report mentioned the Litter Act of 1963 and, among other things, listed the rubbish dumps, big vehicles that spilled their load of material along roads, hawkers who did not have containers to collect their spills and contractors bound to clear any debris when works are completed.

Fifty years have passed and although local councils spend most of their funds to keep the locality clean, there are still those who break the law. Garbage of all sorts is regularly collected in all localities and bulky refuse collection is only a telephone call away. Yet, many places are dirty because there are those who do not care.

The report mentioned above also said that the police had been instructed to trace pilfered litter bins. As far as I know, this no longer happens because bins on doorsteps are inexistent. Unfortunately, we still find black garbage bags left on doorsteps outside collection days.

We still find households and establishments that ignore recycling certain stuff and, worse still, those that prefer to get rid of their waste anywhere not bothering to use the free bulky refuse collection service. If the Litter Act of 1963 is still in force, where are the police? And do wardens take any action when the law is broken?