It took Cleansing Services Directorate workers several hours to scrub Valletta clean on Tuesday evening, following the Workers' Day mass meeting held at Tritons Square that afternoon. 

Despite all that hard work though, remnants of the alcohol-fuelled rally remained visible throughout the European Capital of Culture, some 24 hours later. 

Environmental activist Ghislaine Calleja took her usual route from the Valletta bus terminus to Melita Street on Wednesday afternoon, and was shocked by the volume of litter she came across during her 500-metre walk. 

"There are dozens of plastic bottles in the ditch by City Gate," she told Times of Malta. "Of course the cleaners couldn't reach them, so now they're just there for everyone entering our European Capital of Culture to see." 

A few metres on, she found further signs of the previous day's revelry: "Oh My Malta!" stickers printed especially for the PL mass meeting, plastered onto the paving and "forever ingrained in our capital of culture", as she put it. 

To add insult to injury, Ms Calleja also came across a fistful of plastic cable ties strewn across the ground, all within a five-metre square area. 

"So much for Valletta boasting about events having to abide by its sustainability policy," she said. "Is a European Capital of Culture really the right place to hold a political mass meeting?" 

Stickers plastered onto Valletta's paving. Photo: Ghislaine Calleja