Earlier this week, the Nationalist Party escorted journalist around a number of areas in St Julian’s, San Gwann, Sliema, and Swieqi in order to illustrate the dire situation with regards to waste management that the country is going through.

And the situation is dire.  Journalists witnessed mounds and mounds of waste in both residential and touristic areas, left to rot in the hot summer air in the mid-afternoon for all who happen to pass by to see and smell.

At the start of the year the government imposed a new waste collection schedule which was harmonised across the whole country, which basically set out what type of garbage should be put out and when it should be put out.

Unfortunately it is clear that this schedule is in many places being ignored.  Journalists visiting the localities explained above saw all sorts of garbage.  Black bags and grey bags littered the pavements on what was a Wednesday – which is a day set out for organic waste.

It isn’t an uncommon occurrence to see black bags out on the curb days before they should be – and it isn’t uncommon either to see some variant of rodent nibbling away at the garbage that is left outside either.

Such things are commonplace even beyond these four localities however.  Unfortunately, as things stand, Malta is being turned into a dump.  Pavements already weren’t the best in terms of accessibility: now people need to dodge two-day old garbage bags along with everything else.

The Nationalist Party mayors who spoke to journalists about the situation in their respective locality are right to call this a crisis and are right to say that waste management right now is not being done effectively at all.

The root cause of the problem however is not necessarily the fact that the population has continued to increase, as some would have you think: it is more that a not so insignificantly sized chunk of the population chooses to ignore the waste schedule which has been imposed across the country.

This is ultimately what results in black or grey bags littering the pavements for days until they are eventually picked up on the day that they should be picked up.

Those who spoke at the PN’s media stunt remarked that often times, the culprits behind the reckless abandonment of waste outside are typically foreign residents who live in short-let blocks of apartments.

It was noted that these people – who might be used to their home cultures of putting all waste outside for collection, irrespective of the day of the week – need to be better informed on the waste collection schedules.

But beyond this, there also needs to be proper enforcement.  Enforcement is always the ultimate point that is lacking and this topic is no different; and while the people who don’t follow the schedule are the ones to blame, the government has a role to play in taking the necessary enforcement measures in order to stop people from ignoring the rules time and time again.

We cannot speak about improving quality of life if we cannot even figure out how to get people to follow a simple waste management system.

Rather than seeing quality of life improved, we have a Malta which is slowly being turned into a glorified rubbish tip – which is absolutely the last thing anyone wants to see.