Environment Minister Miriam Dalli has revealed that as of October 2024, a total of 944 fines have been issued so far this year on grounds relating to waste collection. Throughout the entire calendar year of 2023, a total of 636 such fines were issued, which in itself, was over double the recorded total for 2022.

From the 944 issued fines this year, the locality of Gżira contributed 22% of all fines handed out. 208 fines were given in this locality alone as of last month.

The only other localities to have over a hundred distinct fines issued by this period were Msida (176 fines) and Pietà (122 fines).

23 localities this year have recorded zero issued fines.

In the past eight years - from 2016 till October 2024 - the number of waste collection contraventions increased dramatically.

From zero recorded fines in 2016, to a single one in 2017, and just nine in 2018, the regularity of such fines began picking up in 2019 with 178. 371 contraventions were issued in 2020, followed by 343 in 2021, and a minor drop to 256 in 2022, before spiking to a total of 636 fines last year. 2024 is on pace to become the first calendar year in this period to eclipse 1,000 issued waste collection fines.

In 2023, the three localities with the most issued fines were St. Paul's Bay with 126 fines (down to 78 in 2024), Gżira (up to 208 so far), and Sliema with 76 given contraventions (down to 21 as of October 2024).

This data was provided through an answered parliamentary question which was tabled by PN MP Graziella Galea.