From E. Galea

Last week, my family and I decided to try out the new sandy beach that is being created under the New Dolmen Hotel. Full marks to whoever came up with the idea of utilising a space that was just rugged rocks that could not be used by anyone. Although still not finished it is already being enjoyed by a lot of people.

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of installing waste separation bins on the beach. Everyone using the beach on this particular date seemed to be using these bins correctly. In the course of the afternoon, two beach attendants came to empty the bins. However, to my amazement, one of them started fishing around the bins marked paper, plastic and metal with his bare hands and throwing all the contents of the bins into a bag held by his colleague. I thought, strange, will they now go over to the big waste separation bins and start the process of separating the waste all over again. Apart from being hazardous for them, it was totally unhygienic and unsightly. However, lo and behold, once they arrived at these bins situated some metres away, they just opened the old green skip and chucked the bag into it. Full marks to these two individuals who just ignored the efforts everyone made by disposing of their rubbish in the correctly marked bins on the beach.

Another thing that struck me was why didn't they also empty the glass into the same bag. Of course! They came round one more time, now using a smaller plastic bag, like the ones supplied in supermarkets, and started collecting soft drink bottles so that they could collect the deposit on these bottles.

I found this whole exercise utterly disgusting, firstly because of the hazard, secondly because it was unhygienic, thirdly because it was disrespectful to everyone who had previously separated the rubbish and finally but not least, they were seen by all the tourists on the beach. At least these guests of ours will have a funny anecdote to tell when they get home.

Is this what the government had in mind when someone came up with idea of putting up the billboards and all other advertisements of Brand Malta?

E. Galea

QAWRA