Why are clean-ups important?

“Cleaning up is important in several aspects; littering and waste dumping cover the surface of the soil and reduce surface cover by flora, so by cleaning, it will help nature to flourish again,” Galea explained.

“It helps to reduce the dispersion of invasive and alien species plants, and it reduces the number of fires caused by the aluminium cans and glass, therefore, reducing environmental damage.

Galea also expressed how it helps to reduce pollution on land and sea, as well as balancing the wrong acts committed by environmental criminals. 

It’s World Clean-Up Week – what are your plans?

“We do not give importance to the World Clean-Up Week per se, as we do it weekly but currently we are cleaning in front of Magħtab Civic Amenity Site, Qrendi and we focus mainly on Għar Lapsi Natura 2000 site, from the parking area up to Tal-Magħlaq quarry, in Siggiewi,” Galea said.

With that being said, 7R Lifestyle Malta will join forces with other Koalizzjoni għal Futur Sostenibbli (KFS) groups on 17th September at 4pm to clean up Għajn Tuffieha.

Why weekly clean-ups?

“7R Lifestyle Malta decided to do weekly cleanups in just one location at Għar Lapsi stretching over a long period of time, since September 2020. 

“At first, we had minimal impact, but with time the viewers on social media started to understand our message,” Galea said, explaining how they also carried out investigations as part of their efforts.

“Our wider message is clear – ‘Irridu nagħlqu l-vit u mhux inkomplu nimsħu l-ilma’ – ‘We need to shut the tap off, instead of wiping the spilt water’.”

“Till now we collected around 1,200 bags from a ‘protected’ site and identified around 60 people who littered and illegally dumped in that area.  A total of 950 hours were spent by volunteers to help out in this mission,” he detailed.

He then added that from the results collected and the experience gained it was evident that Malta’s enforcement and waste management systems are not functioning well.

But, are clean-ups the solution?

“You have to clean it, to believe it,” Galea said. 

“Anyone who attends a cleanup for the first time in their life will realise that we have a serious problem in this country. Some of their first reactions were thoughts like: ‘I thought that we have people responsible to clean those areas’.”

Galea stated that clean-ups are a corrective action to be taken after littering and illegal dumping occur, and not the solution to the waste issue. 

Usually, the people who attend cleanups, do not have littering behaviour so there is no direct impact on litterers.  Litterers will remain littering as it is part of their behaviour and/or culture.

Has the situation improved?

“A slight improvement was seen as some of the Syrian groups started leaving their waste in a black bag next to the street rather than leaving it dispersed on a Natura 2000 garigue as they used to do. We talked with some of them and they immediately changed their behaviour,” Galea explained.

“Littering from the car is very frequent on all streets.  We are observing lots of illegal dumping of dead animals,” he said. 

Galea also expressed that illegal dumping of construction waste happens on a weekly basis, in numerous places around Malta.

“We registered seven fires in 2021 and three fires in 2022 within Għar Lapsi Natura 2000 area.  The decrease in number shows that cleanups reduce the number of fires but we need to keep trending for more years to confirm.  Although this is an improvement, the environmental damage caused by the 2022 fires was bigger than all fires in 2021,” he detailed.

What’s your idea of an ideal world?

“We believe that in an ideal world every consumed product has a bar code which can be linked with an e-id number when purchased. Then every waste item can be traceable to the owner,” Galea suggested.

“If found littered in the environment, the owner will be fined as they will be directly responsible for purchasing till going to the bin. This is doable and it is the most traceable system that can be created, and like this littering will be under control,” he said.

7R Lifestyle Malta aspires that Malta becomes a ZERO clean-up state, and the group is applying this target within the Ghar Lapsi Natura 2000 site.

Lovin Malta has done a similar article as part of World Clean-Up Week together with NGO Żibel co-founder Andrew Schembri.

Well done 7R Lifestyle Malta!