Malta's waste has made plenty of headlines in recent weeks, with plans for a €150m waste management facility, a pledge to introduce a deposit scheme for plastic bottles and an artist unveiling a whale sculpture made up entirely of marine litter.

But for these efforts to make a lasting difference, locals will have to start taking responsibility for their own behaviour.

This photo sent in by a Times of Malta reader of cigarette butts dotting the ground outside a Tigné block is a case in point.

The butts, the reader said, belonged to employees of a gaming company working inside the tower.

"I tried four times to ask the employees to stop throwing cigarette butts all over the floor outside of their work," the reader said.  "Why is it so hard to just dispose of them properly and not treat Malta as a personal ashtray?"

A cigarette butt can take up to 10 years to decompose, and throwing one to the ground is a €50 offence according to local laws. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said during this year's Budget speech that the government will be increasing fines for littering.

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