– as told by Wesley Davies

Melanie Drury

When most people have gone to sleep my “working day” begins. I think of my four-year old son, fast asleep at home, with my wife who I have left alone. But it is for him, for them, that I am doing this.

It is 1:30am as I set foot on the sandy beach. It is already an hour since I met my colleagues at the company premises. After checking our equipment we made our way here. Even in the darkness, the beach is a sorry sight... it is the feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I see the litter scattered all over the beach that motivates me through the night. I somehow still cannot get over how incredibly and disgustingly dirty we can be, with no respect for nature and for the next person who might want to use the same beach.

Our crew of four begins to collect the litter including discarded glass and plastic bottles, plastic and paper bags, take-away food trays, even towels! We also remove bulky items such as left-over wood and stone from make-shift barbeques as well as disposable ones which have not been properly disposed of, tree branches and other unimaginable items!

As I approach the group of youths still lingering on the beach with their bottles of wine, I notice a feeling of dread creeping up on me. I consider drunk people who refuse to move and allow work to continue, and their aggressiveness, the worst pollution I ever have to deal with. I have formed this opinion after my well-built colleague has had to use his intimidating size on a number occasions to cause abusers to back off. Fortunately, this particular group is pacific; they appreciate what we are doing and leave quietly.

I would add that, up-close behind the drunks, the next worse nuisance are the illegal camping tents, which are usually accompanied by barbeque remains: charcoal, sandy sausages, burgers... you name it, it will be found on the beach next to empty bins. I think of my sleeping son; I imagine him playing happily on a clean and danger-free beach, and feel fulfilled by what I am doing.

The actual cleaning of the beach is not our responsibility. Beach-cleaners are employed by the government to pick up this kind of refuse on a daily basis, starting at 6am, but since we arrive at around 2am so as not to be of any inconvenience to the general public and beach facility owners, we automatically perform both jobs of sand-sifting and beach cleaning.

Our primary objective is actually to sift sand and remove finer garbage such as cigarette butts, pistachio crusts, bottle caps and other smaller items which are not so easily collected by hand on a day-to-day basis. In order to perform our service, it is essential to first remove larger garbage so that we do not risk any damage to the sand-sifting machine and to ensure it maintains optimum performance.

I think about how the sand-sifting machine played its part in why I am now walking up and down the beach in the darkness, collecting other people’s refuse. It motivated me to become interested in this service when I was on a business trip in Rimini and I observed such a machine in action. I was intrigued that, apart from its obvious purpose, sand-sifting offered a great deal of side-benefits.

It was winter and the way the sifted sand settled in rows on the beach was being utilised as a method of refraining the sand from being blown by the wind. Furthermore, with continuos sand-sifting the quality of the sand improves dramatically as the sand granules become finer, resulting in a much silkier feel. Also, with the sand-sifting process, whereby the sand is rotated, the formation of bacteria is restrained while sea water acts as a natural disinfectant.

Immediately I thought of how useful such a machine could be in Malta. On my return I discovered that sand-sifting was being done, however not with this type of equipment. My friend and I began investigating mechanical sand-sifters like the one I had seen in Rimini. After reviewing various options and other manufacturers we established that Tirrenia offers the ideal machine for sand-sifting small to medium-sized beaches, provided they have some road-access.

We were awarded the sand-sifting contract in May following a public tender. Thus we committed to sift the sand at Mellieha Bay, Golden Bay, Bugibba Pearched Beach and St George’s Bay on a weekly basis from June to September, and twice-weekly for the middle beach of Mellieha Bay from mid-July to mid-August. After negotiation with the company, we purchased the Tirrenia 1003 TOP machine, obtaining an exclusive dealership for Malta.

It is 2am by the time the machine starts sand-sifting in parallel lines from the shore inwards. The machine has flood lights at the front to enable maneuver, flood lights behind it so that the crew can see that nothing is being overlooked, and a beacon light at the back so people can see the machine in operation.

I supervise a crew of three persons: one being the machine operator and two others to scout in front of the machine clearing larger or bulkier garbage and to follow the machine scouring the sand in order to pick up anything that may have been missed. We have a foreign machine-operator who is now training local crew how to do so in his absence. The machine operator is a friend of a friend; we had discovered coincidentally that he had done this job previously, on mainland Europe, so we recruited him!

The process also includes manual sandsifting. The machine’s two bins take up to 8kg each. When they are full, the garbage is taken to a spot where one of the crew will sift it all again manually in order to minimize disposal of sand. This manually re-sifted garbage will finally be placed in garbage bags and disposed of in appropriate bins that are part of the machine’s trailer.

The machine rotates and sifts sand up to 15cm deep. In a single sifting per week, we collect about 150kg from Golden Bay alone. If done more frequently, the process becomes more efficient so in two siftings per week 100kg may be collected each time. In a typical week we collect around 350kg of waste material, which would otherwise have kept accumulating and sunk deeper into the layers of sand.

On a pristine beach untouched by man, obviously sand-sifting would not be required. However, since man is of an exploiting nature, it becomes necessary in order to maintain the balance of the natural environment. Apart from the self-evident environmental benefits, my main concern is for a cleaner and safer environment for kids to play in and an untarnished ambient all can enjoy.

Between 4:30am and 5am we begin to prepare to leave the site, loading the collected material onto the trailer, to be disposed off at our premises. Soon to follow are the colours of sunrise, followed by a soft light that begins to fill sky, revealing a job well-done. This is the best part of my working day!

We usually arrival at the company premises at around 5:30am. We finish off by unloading the material into skips and cleaning the machine.We bid each other good morning and good bye and head home to sleep, while is the rest of the population is awaking!

Almost without fail, as I drive home and even as I fall to sleep, I ponder on the nature of humans. Why is it that we cannot be more conscious? We do not possess these natural beauties to exploit them; rather we are blessed to receive a loan of them from nature, not only to enjoy them, but also to care for them... which means that all of us can enjoy them longer, including generations yet to come.

It is a fact that the value of things is more deeply appreciated when they are lost; we are trying to appreciate them before they are lost, in order to prevent them from that end. Indeed, with more awareness and contribution, perhaps more funds could be allocated towards the authorities’ attempts to ease the damage already done. Ideally, the regularity should be increased or the project prolonged throughout the year, if possible.

Yet the first step lies with individual responsibility. I continue to hold dear what my elders had taught me when I was a young lad – to always leave a place looking better than it did when I found it!

For more information contact

Mr Wesley Davies: [email protected]

This is the 8th in Melanie Drury’s, “A Day in the Life of...” series. The next one is due on 18th August.

www.melaniedrury.com

[email protected]

[email protected]