Updated at 5.30pm with MTA reaction

The fringes of Paradise Bay are turning into a plastic graveyard, video uploaded by a local diving adventurer suggests.

A large wheelie bin, plastic safety barrier and innumerable numbers of jerry cans are among the plastic items which Raniero Borg came across while exploring the northern beach.

It’s not just plastic, either. In the three-minute video uploaded to Facebook, Mr Borg also gingerly steps past mounds of driftwood, foam and fishing lines.

Much of the plastic appears to be in a relatively advanced state of decomposition, with Mr Borg easily snapping it between his fingers.

Decomposing plastics are one of world’s greatest marine pollution challenges, with so-called microplastics ingested by fish and making their way through the food chain.

The scale of the problem is mind-boggling. Local researchers, for example, found almost 11,000 so-called plastic ‘nurdles’ in just four samples of sand along Għajn Tuffieħa.

The Paradise Bay litter highlighted by Mr Borg was most likely washed up to the once-idyllic beach by winter waves, given that NGOs and volunteers have organised extensive clean-ups of the area over successive summers. In July 2017, volunteers helped Żibel gather more than 1 tonne of waste from the area. The following year, volunteers returned for a repeat clean-up.

Mr Borg’s alarmed Facebook post – “the worst mess I personally have come across,” he wrote – appears to have struck a chord.

MEP hopeful and clean-up activist Camille Appelgren immediately offered to clean up the site this coming weekend, while Malta Tourism Authority chairman Gavin Gulia promised to “chase the cleansing department” as soon as he was told where exactly the mess was found.

An MTA spokesperson told Times of Malta that authorities would be taking "relevant action" to fix the litter problem "in the coming days".