Last week Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar together with other organisations held its first clean-ups. FAA volunteers together with Lets Do it Now and employees from the San Antonia Hotel took advantage of a rare sunny afternoon to clear rubbish from Qawra beach, filling 15 large garbage bags, totaling 124 kilos.

A larger scale clean-up took place on Saturday 7 March on the Xgħajra-Marsascala coastline, focusing on the area around the Tal-Wisgħa tower built by the Knights of St John in the 17th century.

The event was well attended by volunteers, who spent most of the day picking up copious amounts of trash dumped by people over the past years. The waste included everything imaginable, from dolls, cans and plastic bags to TV sets and sofas. Some of the waste was hazardous in nature, including open and leaking lead-acid batteries, electronic equipment leaching into the soil, and asbestos pipes. These were handled with utmost care, and were properly disposed of by the Cleansing Directorate who collected the gathered waste at the end of the event. By the end of the day, three tonnes of rubbish were collected.

 

While the NGOs thank the people who attended and supported the event, they are disappointed that despite growing environmental awareness and freephone services for door-to-door pick up of bulky refuse, people still feel it is acceptable to dump their trash in the Maltese countryside.