José Herrera, Minister for Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change
A few days ago, the Ministry for Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change launched a public consultation on amendments to the littering regulations whereby I stressed that illegal dumping of waste clearly shows lack of civic responsibility. It is every citizen’s moral and ethical responsibility not just to deplore these illegal actions, but to stop contributing to such irresponsible acts. While every effort is being carried out to ‘clean’, the issue will remain evident until there is an effective change in mentality by our society.
Through the Ministry for Environment alone, we have removed tonnes of waste or illegally dumped material throughout the last months, this apart from Cleansing Department efforts and even commendable private initiatives including clean-ups. As an example, on Comino, MESDC, through ERA’s intervention, removed around 500 tonnes of waste most of which was construction material. Since September 2017 works carried out by the valley management task force removed 1,500 cubic metres of material and tens of tonnes of waste from 10 valleys. Additionally, last week my ministry took the initiative to address years of accumulated illegal dumping at Majjistral Park.
The government believes that enforcement and awareness is key to address this issue; however it also depends on citizens understanding their civic responsibilities and collaborating accordingly. The ministry is addressing this issue on various fronts.
Firstly from a policy/legal aspect by issuing a public consultation on two important amendments; one referring to actions on illegal dumping and reclamation of land, which strive to change land which was used as illegal grounds for dumping to be restored or changed to afforestation projects under the supervision of ERA.
Government is providing a holistic vision
The public consultation on the amendments to the littering regulations has six ultimate objectives: to increase penalties for individuals caught littering; to oblige street hawkers and sellers to provide recycling bins; to make it an offence to issue the wrong garbage bag at the wrong time and day; introducing additional fines if such abandonment is carried out on protected areas; making waste separation during public events obligatory (one has to commend the initiative taken by the Żebbuġ local council during the village feast); and lastly introducing a more practical way to pay any related fines. In parallel to this, the ministry is working on creating a directorate for enforcement (within ERA) which will solely focus on environmental enforcement. This will add resources, strategy, structure and competence to enforcement that today is primarily the role of the competent authorities.
Additionally, the task force committee led by the Parks, Afforestation and Countryside Restoration Directorate and MESDC are also involving the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, the Regional Committee for Local Councils and the Cleansing Directorate set up in August 2017. The task force is monitoring and removing litter and fly-tipped material from a number of priority valleys across the island to ameliorate the environmental status of these watercourses and ensure that rural and flood-relief infrastructure are safeguarded adequately.
An exercise was carried out with local councils to identify valleys prone to littering and fly-tipping. From this exercise, 37 valley stretches were reported by various councils. A plan was developed to inspect the reported valleys, to carry out preliminary preparations including communications with ERA in case of removal of invasive and non-native species, implementation of works and monitoring. Since its inception, the task force implemented works in 10 valleys/watercourses covering a total of eight kilometres of valley stretches.
Even in this sector, the government is providing a holistic vision that establishes the core elements required in order for our country to take a step in the right direction. I am confident that citizens will ultimately collaborate in this drive to make our country cleaner.
Jason Azzopardi, Shadow Minister for Environmment
People should be proud of the areas they live in. If an area has a litter problem, it is going to reduce or even destroy the pride that residents have about living there. To me, looking after the area in which you live and the environment, is a civic duty everyone is expected to do. This means more than reminding people of their legal duties not to drop litter or let their dog foul the pavement. It is an active rather than passive obligation.
However, unfortunately in many parts of our beautiful country, there is still litter everywhere including cigarette butts, fast food packaging, plastic bottles and other improperly discarded items which make for a shabby built environment. All this in spite of the millions we spend on waste collection systems and cleansing campaigns all year round.
Carelessness and laziness are among a number of factors that have bred a culture of habitual littering. We cannot afford to have people polluting our valleys and throw trash in our countryside without facing severe fines for their irresponsible behaviour.
Carelessness and laziness are factors that have bred a culture of habitual littering
In the absence of this sense of civic responsibility towards the environment, the newly proposed amendments to the Littering Regulations, namely harsher fines for anyone caught dumping litter in public places, are good deterrents to try to curtail abuse. The current littering regulations have been in force since 2005 but proper enforcement leaves much to be desired. If justice is not done and seen to be done, irresponsible residents or visiting people with a laissez faire attitude will continue to have it their way to the detriment of the common good.
The proposals also include the mandatory taking out of the right waste bag on the right day according to the local council’s official timetable. Taking out the right bag on the right day is important to ensure garbage bags are not left uncollected for an exceedingly long period of time, during which they can be subject to animal scavenging resulting in the immediate scattering of litter in the environment and leaving more bad odours in the air.
What baffles me is that in such a small island we have 68 local councils and 68 different waste collection timetables. Take Birkirkara and the less than a kilometre away its neighbour Santa Venera. Residents of Birkirkara have a curb-side collection of mixed waste on Mondays and Saturdays; twice a week for the recyclables and organic waste on other days. In Santa Venera the timetable is different. Recyclables are collected once a week and on the remaining days only the black bag is collected.
Although I am aware of the autonomy of the local councils, I believe it is high time for the central administration to sit down with all stakeholders and agree with one national timetable that makes residents more aware and cooperative.
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