Nature Trust Mala has expressed serious concern at the fact that the Għaqda Mużikali Marija Bambina, Banda Vittorja of Naxxar is planning to release a record breaking amount of balloons as part of the feast activities next week.

Plastics are one of the major pollutants and take decades, if not more, to disintegrate. Worse still, once the balloons come back down to earth and fall into the sea they resemble jellyfish, which are the number one food for marine turtles.

Earlier this week, one was released after four years of rehabilitation, precisely because it had ingested plastic.

Mass balloon releases have been outlawed around the world, including in the UK, the US, Australia and a number of European Union countries. NTM also urged the government to follow suit and pass legislation which would ban similar activities. We could not agree more.

Such as a stunt is tantamount to mass littering and destroying wildlife and natural habitat, not to say downright irresponsibility.

We are spending hundreds of thousands of euros in attempting to improve our environment, yet the whole concept of sustainability and zero waste goes out of the window when instances such as this one surface.

While NTM’s actions are laudable in calling out the band club on their plans, it should go one further and file for a prohibitory injunction in court, citing mass pollution as the reason why the event should not go ahead.

With all this being said, we are sure that this is a case of ignorance, rather than callousness on the part of the band club. But the government needs to get its act together and react to such instances swiftly and in such a manner that legislation can be passed and updated accordingly.

If we truly want to improve the state of our environment, then we must begin to take issues like these seriously. Fighting for our environment does involve taking stands against Spring Hunting and over development. But it also involves stopping the litter bugs, stopping events such as this, and most of all, protecting our marine environment.

What we see on the surface of the sea is literally the tip of the iceberg. It is only when one dons an aqualung that the sheer devastation that we cause under the surface becomes apparent. Cigarette butts, plastic bags, car engines, beer cans, bottles and hundreds of other types of waste can be found around our islands.

And with this, we too launch an appeal to the band club in question. If the money has already been spent on the balloons, them they should at least be used as a static installation, rather than a mass let off. If the balloons have not yet been bought, then donate the funds to an environmental charity.