Areas cleaned up by volunteers end up covered in empty beer cans, discarded food and a million other items just days after the original exercise, says a member of a newly set up organisation which aims to take care of public areas.

It is the most frustrating aspect for these volunteers who, instead of spending a day at the beach meet to collect litter left in public areas by irresponsible people.

This week, The Malta Independent on Sunday sat down with Luke Said, a representative of Nadur Nadif in order to obtain his take on the waste problem in Malta and the reason behind the setting up of the Koalizzjoni ghal Futur Sostenibbli (KFS – Coalition for Sustainable Future).

When Said was asked about what Nadur Nadif does, he explained that it is an organisation that was established five years ago and whose main focus is organising weekly clean-ups. However, he expressed the frustration the members encounter when they find themselves cleaning an area and then a month later it would be littered again. They felt as if their voice was not being heard, which resulted in them achieving nothing.

Similarly, all nine organisations that form part of this KFS all felt the same. They began to communicate and they came up with a few proposals that they wanted to share with the ministry responsible for the Environment and Wasteserv, the government agency responsible. As a result, all nine organisations decided to join forces in order to fight for a cleaner environment through KFS.

The nine organisations that form part of KFS are: Nadur Nadif, Din l-Art Ħelwa Mellieħa, 7R Lifestyle Malta, the Birżebbuġa Clean-up Group, No to Plastic Malta, Green Hats, Raniero's Adventures, Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq Clean-up Group and Green Waves.

Said expressed his frustration about the lack of bins that are present in certain public areas. He gave the example of high touristic areas not having enough bins to cater for the amount of waste being generated. According to him, this results in a “pyramid of waste around the bin”. Everywhere you look, he pointed out, there was waste accumulating as people are disposing of it incorrectly.

Moreover, when he was asked about their relationship with the Ministry of Gozo, he described it as being a “mixed bag”. He elaborated on how the ministry “can be very helpful or it can seem as if they (the NGOs) don’t exist”. In reference to this, he gave an example that took place last year where they held a clean-up event for world clean-up day, but the Cleansing Department took two weeks to collect the items that had been picked up by the volunteers.

Additionally, he was asked to elaborate on what ideas they might have about education and enforcement. He stated that although people know that littering is bad, they still do it. It seems that campaigns, including visits to schools such as the one Said’s organisation organised at the Nadur Primary School, are not leaving the desired effect.

With regard to enforcement, the coalition’s goal is to build a better relationship with the Malta police force, so that the police can understand the extent of the littering taking place in order for them to act more effectively.

The KFS will be releasing its policies in about two weeks, he said. Also, it plans on setting up meetings with the authorities where it will be able to speak about the problems of waste at the moment and show proof through statistics and pictures to highlight the gravity of the situation.

Nevertheless, Said ultimately stated that if the formation of KFS proves to be unsuccessful in instilling more responsibility then, “unfortunately” it will have to protest as a “last resort”.

Although this coalition is in place, Said made it clear that the individual organisations shall continue to work and organise events as separate entities, for the simple fact that they believe that it is important that different localities throughout the island have an organisation that focuses on their locality.

He stated that they “span the entire country” and therefore there are local representations everywhere. The main aim of KFS will be to put forward new proposals to the authorities.