Cleansing Department workers descended on Paradise Bay on Saturday morning as they began cleaning up piles of rubbish found lying along the fringes of the idyllic northern beach.

The workers hopped across rocks and carried awayt many of the bulky plastic and wood items reported by diver and activist Raniero Borg earlier this week.

They gathered a truckload of material before calling it a day, but will have to return several times to completely clear the area, a department spokesman told Times of Malta. 

“It will probably take five or six days to remove all the rubbish we found,” Cleansing Department director general Ramon Deguara said, adding that workers were somewhat perplexed by the litter trove.

Watch: Paradise Bay or plastic graveyard?

“It’s a mystery how some of that rubbish got down there,” he said. “It’s very hard to access the area, but it’s also unlikely that all the wood we found was washed up to shore”.

The piles of litter were brought to the Cleansing Department’s attention following a Facebook video uploaded by Mr Borg to his business page Raniero’s Adventures.

In the video, Mr Borg sifted through the mounds of plastic, which included a green wheelie bin and plastic safety barrier, which he described as “the worst” illegal litter dump he had ever come across.

A Malta Tourism Authority spokesperson had told Times of Malta that it would be alerting the Cleansing Department to the litter site.

To contact the Cleansing Department, dial 718 or email customercare.cleansing@gov.mt

Spotted something worth sharing? Get in touch on mynews@timesofmalta.com

Workers have plenty to do at the northern beach. Photo: Clean Malta