Recycling bring-in sites across the island are being turned into veritable pigsties by litter louts dumping rubbish there with no fear of being brought to justice.

The lack of enforcement has gotten so bad, that a company with plans to install CCTV cameras to catch waste dumpers is now having second thoughts about the idea.

Waste management firm GreenPak, which operates iBiN sites across Malta and Gozo, says that its investment in the smart recycling bins is being laid to waste by government reluctance to enforce its own rules.

“The lack of enforcement is severely undermining our investment and our work.  GreenPak made a huge investment in the iBiN project and now it is being laid to waste by government’s apparent intransigence,” said company CEO Mario Schembri.

The San Ġwann site before illegal waste dumpers turned it into a pigsty.

“Although GreenPak has been sending images and footage of abusive actions to both ERA and LESA to take action against the abusers, no decrease in littering has been noticed - if anything, littering is on the increase at an alarming rate.”

The company is now not sure whether it will go ahead and install CCTV cameras at all remaining iBiN sites, saying the lack of enforcement is making it "doubt the wisdom of such an investment". 

ERA insists it is cracking down

People who dump rubbish bags at bring-in sites are slapped with a €150 administrative fine if caught. 

ERA has 14 officers who tour Malta and Gozo 'at least twice a week' during the day and night

The Environment and Resources Authority issued 45 such fines during January and February of this year, and on Saturday insisted it could do nothing if ERA officers did not catch wrongdoers red-handed. 

"For fines to be administered, ERA must actually witness individuals in the act," the authority said in a statement which highlighted its enforcement efforts. 

The authority has 14 officers who tour Malta and Gozo "at least twice a week" during the day and night to look out for waste contraventions, the authority said. Local community officers - previously known as wardens - also enforce such matters. 

The bulk of ERA waste-related enforcement is related to people taking out domestic waste on the wrong days or well before collection time: ERA officers caught 117 such people red-handed during the first six months of the year, with most being in Qawra and Buġibba (55) and Marsascala (26). 

'Sending the wrong message'

Those enforcement efforts, however, appear to pale in comparison to the scale of the problem.

Photos posted to social media suggest that waste dumping remains rampant across the country, despite new recycling laws, threats of fines and multiple bring-in sites created in towns and villages across Malta and Gozo.

Instead of emphasising a crack-down on dumping louts, authorities are focusing efforts on cleaning up the mess they leave behind.

Earlier this week, a large-scale emergency clean-up saw the Cleansing Department sweep up 10 tonnes of rubbish from St Paul’s Bay and Buġibba. That clean-up was organised after Times of Malta gave voice to residents who said the litter situation in the seaside towns was becoming unbearable.

Bags of rubbish illegally left at recycling sites.

Focusing on such clean-ups is completely misguided, GreenPak fears.

“The idea that Government spends money in cleaning up the mess left behind by irresponsible individuals is sending the wrong message. Money should be spent on effective, strong and decisive enforcement of the littering regulations,” Mr Schembri said.

Instead, the company suggested creating ‘rubbish police’ tasked with catching illegal dumpers. The company has already raised the suggestion with the Finance Ministry, it said in its statement.

Despite growing litter problems, proper use of iBiNs is on the increase: the company has seen a 40  per cent uptick in use of the smart recycling bins, which can detect when they are full and divert users of the iBiNs app to the nearest available bin.