Updated 8.35pm - Added video

Wedged in between rocks at Paradise Bay, the red plastic jerrycan stuck out like a sore thumb. So too did the rusted water heater lying atop a pile of driftwood. Decaying plastic bottles dotted the jagged landscape like cactuses in a desert. 

By the time the sun set on the Natura 2000 site, all were gone, carried away by around 60 volunteers who took part in a four-hour Paradise Bay cleanup last Friday. 

READ: Volunteers gather an eye-popping 11 tonnes of waste from Mellieħa

In all, the volunteers [disclosure: this writer among them] cleared just over 1 tonne of waste from the site. 884kg of that was plastic, with another 123kg of glass and  8kg of metal. To put that into perspective, explained #Żibel organisers, a two-litre plastic bottle weighs 18g. 

#Żibel, an eNGO which organises nature clean-ups around Malta, decided to target Paradise Bay on the suggestion of Daniel de Castro of the Malta National Aquarium, organisers said. 

The area is a Special Area of Conservation and a Natura 2000 site, though those protected labels have not done much to help keep the site clean of rubbish. 

Plastic piping, rusted car parts, fishing nets and polystyrene floats were all bundled into volunteers' rubbish bags. There were enough glass bottles to fill multiple sacks. 

Rubbish bags, gathered and ready to be carried away. Photo: Niki Caruana/nicmedia

"When we scouted the area we saw the state it was in for ourselves," organisers told Times of Malta. "Sadly, our roundabouts are cleaner than our Natura 2000 sites." 

With the rubbish collected and bagged, volunteers - young and old, many foreign - formed a human chain to convey the waste back to the main beach. From there, it was lifted to the top of the bay using the Paradise Bay Lido's supply lift. There, organisers weighed the waste and loaded it into a WasteServ truck. 

#Żibel is run on a purely voluntary basis and organisers stressed that cleanups were only possible thanks to help offered by sponsors such as Ecopure, lift services, Browns, Nexus Gaming Intelligence, WasteServ and the Cleansing Services Department.

The eNGO is now preparing scouting trips to identify the location of its next clean-up, pencilled in for mid- to late-August. "We've got some ideas, and to be honest we're spoilt for choice," co-founder Andrew Schembri admitted. 

To take part in the next #Żibel cleanup, follow them on Facebook.

Volunteers formed a human chain to move rubbish out of the site. Photo: Niki Caruana/nicmedia

From plastic to metal to fishing nets. Photo: Niki Caruana/nicmedia