One of Malta’s leading environmentalists has posted a video showing the desperate lengths Maltese birds are going to in their bid to create a home for their young ones.

Cami Appelgren went to Ta’ Qali to show just how dire the plastic situation has become on the island, with birds now using plastic to fortify their nests.

“A bird nest fell down and it is full of plastic so I decided to make my way here to see if I can find it,” Appelgren says in the video. “It’s not super common to find them when they have fallen down, and if there’s plastic in it, it would be nice to document it.”

“I made my way down to Ta’ Qali to see if I could find this bird’s nest, and I am going to show you the reality of our overuse of single-use plastic”

She finds the nest in question as she walks through Ta’ Qali.

The nest in question is a visibly sad sight, with its fibres intertwined with things like nylon wire and wet wipes.

“The whole nest is literally made up of small pieces of plastic. There’s actually not much apart from plastic in this one,” Appelgren points out.

Finding multiple wet wipes in the nest, she called on Maltese families to try and reduce their wet wipes use, stating she knows that families often take wet wipes with them when they go to parks like Ta’ Qali. Instead, she called on people to use water to wash their hands instead of using wet wipes, which take hundreds of years to degrade.

“Wet wipes do not degrade in nature; they are made from plastic. I know it’s not so convenient, but if the birds can hatch in nests not looking like this,” she says as she held up the plastic-infused nest, “I think we can agree: we don’t need wet wipes.”

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