More than 10,000 tons of ille-gally dumped waste have been collected so far this year from the countryside, according to a roundup of the work done by the Public Cleansing Department.

The figures, which were issued yesterday by the Rural Affairs Ministry, also show that another 600 tons were collected as part of a campaign targeting metal.

Ongoing clean-up works are also yielding about two hundred posters displayed illegally every month.

The department is also washing 1,000 kilometres of public areas every month and is now focusing on tourist hotspots, including promenades.

Beaches, where 6,000 tons of algae have been removed, are also being sifted for waste. A thousand metal bins have been replaced by plastic ones that encourage waste separation. Another 300 will be installed in the coming days, the ministry said. Two hundred bins for spent charcoal have also been installed.

On a larger scale, the department received more than 7,000 requests for large waste collection, with more than 21,000 items collected.