More than 4,000 people were fined well over €285,000 in the past year and a half for throwing away rubbish in public places.
Another 445 had to fork out at least €26,500 between them for dumping trash near bins and skips or taking the garbage outdoors before collection time, according to figures provided by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Public Dialogue.
The amount of fines given rocketed since August last year when wardens, the police and the planning authority embarked on a joint effort to fight littering.
Between January and August 2008, a total of 463 fines were handed out when compared to the 2,481 in the same period this year. In total, 5,092 people were booked between January 2008 and August this year.
Last year, the number of fines increased gradually from one person booked in January and 22 in July to 370 in August and then rising every month.
This year saw an opposite trend, with 409 fines issued in January and dropping to 107.
The majority of litter-bugs, 3,725, were fined by police officers while Mepa officials and local wardens handed out 745 and 615 fines respectively.
The largest chunk of the fines, 4,565, were issued for throwing rubbish in public areas. A total of 301 people were slapped with fines - amounting to about €18,051 - for leaving garbage near bins and skips instead of inside them and 144 were fined €9,141 for taking trash outside before collection time.
Fines for such offences range from €58.23 to €232.94. The government did not have the total amount of money paid out for each type of fine so the ones quoted here were calculated on the minimum fine possible. Most fines were given in St Julians, a tourist and entertaining hub, were a total of 795 were booked, 420 of whom this year. Next in line was Valletta, the capital city, were 436 fines were handed out - 203 this year and 233 last.
This was followed by Birkirkara and Mosta, two heavily-populated towns, were 269 and 225 litter bugs were fined since January last year.The Gozitans seem to litter less, as Kercem remained the cleanest with only one fine given in these 18 months. Two fines were given in both San Lawrenz and Sannat.