Garbage problem

No one can deny that the Maltese need to get more disciplined about garbage. Recently I had a funny and, at the same time, sad experience. I was following a garbage truck. This lady came walking down the street carrying one of these cloth ecology saver bags. She looked so pleased showing off, maybe unintentionally, the artwork on it. As soon as she came level with the back of the garbage truck out came three plastic water bottles. Into the truck they went followed by a plastic bag with other stuff that should have been recycled. Well, one step at a time is, at least, encouraging!

So many tourists write swearing that they will never be back because of the filthy streets. I tend to agree with them. What they fail to keep in mind is the size of the island and the number of people on it. I used to live in a town which was the size of Malta. There were three significant differences. The population was 60,000, the number of tourists was low and the community had pride in its environment.

The number of residents makes a big difference. To be fair, if I saw one piece of garbage over there I should expect about seven here. Mathematically, of course. The pride was shown both by the business community - who made sure that if they could potentially create garbage they sent an employee with a picker and bag to clean up - and residents who, as with most other communities, adopted a street or a highway. Commitments were made that on a specific day (usually to coincide with garbage collection) someone went out and made sure that any garbage was picked and left in a specific location for the sanitation workers to collect.

Malta has the added blessing, much needed for the economy, of having tourists. Unfortunately, a number of them are the culprits. I've seen it too many times and commented to the offenders as they are the ones no one needs. They can stay home where most probably they get stiff fines for their irresponsibility.

Perhaps it's time that the government, or some private organisation, designed stickers with "Sold To Tourist" on them. Whenever a business sells something to a tourist - fast food, drinks, etc. - that has the potential of creating garbage, a sticker should go on it. Then the critics will at least have an idea of who is to blame for their disgust.