Two months and a couple of clean-ups in, and the environmentally-friendly group Żibel , who are dedicating their free time to clean up Malta’s countryside and coastlines, have already collected about one tonne (1000 kg) of rubbish.
This Sunda, as part of the Valletta 2018 Green Festival, and organized by Żibel, the group is teaming up with NGOs including Birdlife, Fish4tomorrow and Friends of The Earth, amongst others, with the plan to remove clutter from L-Aħrax, a Natura2000 site. The group are expecting at least 150 volunteers to turn up, after the success of their last huge clean up at Fomm Ir-Riħ.
Speaking to The Malta Independent, Andrew Schembri, one of the founders of Żibel, said that astounding volumes of rubbish had so far been collected by the group around a variety of places in Malta.
Just last Saturday, 196kg of waste were collected from Xaqqa Cliffs by the manpower of a handful of people. A few weeks before, 65 volunteers managed to collect 500kg in Żibel’s larger, organised clean up at Fomm Ir-Riħ.
This Sunday, the clean-up will be focusing on the three camping sites of Aħrax, where someone is also (voluntarily) bringing a crane to pick up all cookers, cars, and other heavy, unsafe items which are chucked into the woodlands.
Andrew emphasised that everything is voluntary about Żibel’s events, and everyone is helping with the motive just to see Malta’s natural environments tidied up. “It is so nice to see people latching onto this idea and making it their own, it is nice to see people caring for their country,” he said.
The locations are chosen by the team when they get a number of reports and photographs of the place from a number of people. The group then follows this up by going to the location and judging the extent of the manpower and resources needed to clean up the area. He expressed his surprise at what they found at L-Aħrax, including an abundance of clay pigeon fragments and other objects discarded carelessly by hunters.
Andrew mentioned that this is where the contribution and presence of a variety of specialised NGOs is significant. “We try to see all aspects of the situation,” he explained. “Different NGOs will see the state of a specific location from different angles. For example, Fish4tomorrow will observe of the coastal area and Birdlife will note the environment by seeing how pollution there could be affecting the bird life,” he said. He suggested that the presence of rats that are attracted to the area by the increase of rubbish, and the presence of rats would decrease the presence of birds.
“This is one of Malta’s only woodland areas,” he stated, “why aren’t there people appointed to take care of it and keep an eye on it and the illegal dumpings?”
Andrew explained how the whole clean up activity is environmentally-friendly through and through, even using dispensers to provide water. “There is no point in generating more waste,” he said. “We try to minimise our carbon footprints as much as possible.”
Despite the group’s efforts, Andrew admitted how “discouraging” it can be at times to see how much rubbish there is around and not enough man power to clean it up. “What we collected is nothing compared to what is out there,” he said. However, once a place is cleaned “we can see the difference with our own eyes.”
To make the situation less disheartening, and more doable, Żibel plans on creating a website with a map of The Maltese Islands to show the density of the rubbish around the islands. With this, people can then get together clean up places at their own free will,” he said, adding that Żibel will provide the equipment and information on how to dispose items properly.
Anyone interested in participating are invited to gather at 9am tomorrow near the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, L- Aħrax, Mellieħa, and are asked to bring only a water bottle. For more information, go to the ‘Żibel’ page ‘L-Aħrax Cleanup’ event on Facebook or contact the group on [email protected].