Being a small country surrounded by the sea is also nice, but it also has its downside, especially when it comes to litter. I can quite confidently say that every piece of light litter not taken care of in Malta will end up at sea. The overall number is that 80% of the marine litter starts on land. In Malta, being surrounded by the sea, I would say the number is higher. I think most of us have seen the harbour areas from time to time, full of the disheartening “plastic soup”. It is devastating and although many of us see it, not many know how it ends up looking like that. One would think it is mainly litter, but that isn’t the case. We all play a part in this.
Something I discovered when I moved to Malta is that there is something called ‘litter acceptance levels’. When I spend a week or two in Sweden, I always notice how clean it is and start thinking about how it can be kept that clean. They mainly have street cleaning in the city centers. The other areas, like villages, don’t have it at all but still stay spotless most of the times.
Then I go back home to Malta and as soon as I step out of the airport my eyes start hurting. I notice litter everywhere, in some areas more than others. The interesting thing is that after some days my eyes aren’t struggling anymore but have become much more relaxed and the areas seems cleaner and don’t affect me so negatively anymore. How come?
Society always sets a norm. The current norm in Malta is that litter is constantly present, hence not many will notice it, or at least not all of it. People will notice that others do not dispose of their litter properly and slowly they adapt to this. It becomes the normal thing. There have been many studies about this and also studies of why people litter, and this is where the interesting part starts.
One would think that people litter because they are stupid. Well, I wish it was that easy but it is not. The top reason why people litter is due to inconvenience. It has been shown that the farther a bin from someone, the likelier the chance that that person will litter. That is why the presence of bins can help a littered society, even before the change of norm has happened. If you think about it, we all know it’s better for the environment to walk or cycle and still we take the car at times. We do it out of convenience - it doesn’t mean that we are stupid.
The second thing that increases the chance of a person littering is an already littered or neglected area. If an area is maintained and kept clean people will think twice before littering. It might not affect the ones who litter due to ignorance, but it does affect the others and there are many of these. Studies have shown that if bins are present, at least 75% of the people in parks would use them. It’s easy to think that the battle of litter is lost, but it is not. The majority of the people wish to do the right thing. When we start to assume that people don’t want to do the right thing, and also assume who the typical person is who will litter, it makes prevention work much harder.
It’s a fact that every type of person litters, yet when you ask them the answer is very often that it was someone else.
I have noticed lately that people post a lot about littered areas. The issue is that many times the areas are left littered without action. The post online won’t have any effect as such, only the already converted will be reading it. What does seem to have an effect is an ounce of civic pride. When people see other people cleaning up, they feel bad, and when this happens they get touched by it.
This is what we have to achieve with all campaigns and awareness - we need to adapt the material for the people to connect to it.
Putting up signs warning that people will get fined for littering yet failing to provide bins is an excuse for people to litter out of protest. It can be seen as silly, but this is what the complexity of litter is.
Not only bad people litter. The litter we see also comes from bad waste management. Reducing is therefore the best way forward.