Around 700 kg of plastic, polystyrene and fishing equipment was cleared from Paradise Bay by volunteers on Saturday morning.

Members of NGO Coast is Clear were joined by around 60 members of the Filippino community group English Church of Christ (INC) for the clear-up.

Over the course of the morning, volunteers managed to fill around 80 bin bags — weighing around 550kg — with rubbish collected from the popular spot in Mellieħa. A further 150kg worth of rope and 15 large jerrycans [20 litre fuel containers] were also hauled from the bay.

Plastic bottles, polystyrene packaging, ropes and fishing lines made up the bulk of the rubbish, with volunteers also finding some dead animals including seagulls, eels and a turtle, which they believe had been caught in fishing nets.

And while most of the rubbish had washed up from the sea, volunteers estimated that around a quarter of it was made up of litter left by visitors to the area or was the result of illegal dumping.

NGO Coast is Clear teamed up with around 60 members of the Filippino community for the clean-up. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier.

Saturday morning’s clean-up was the latest such operation by Coast is Clear, which has been running regular collection activities since it started just less than two years ago.

The organisation’s founder Mark Galea Pace told Times of Malta that a lot of the plastic that washed up had travelled far, with much of it originating from Libya, Tunisia and Italy.

“Unfortunately, a lot of plastic washes up on our coast and we find a lot of plastic from other countries — just as, obviously, the plastic that we [in Malta] drop into the sea goes to other countries” he said.

“This isn’t actually just a Mediterranean problem; it's a worldwide problem,” said Galea Pace.

However, while Galea Pace described the problem as “constant”, since he started the NGO in 2022, with coastal areas less frequented by visitors facing larger pileups of rubbish, he said the response to the problem was gaining traction.

“Awareness has exploded, and the numbers of volunteers have definitely increased. Some schools have started their own clean-up initiatives and groups from many different villages are taking a stand and doing their bit as well,” he said.

“It’s a far greater problem than most people think but at least the will is there... The environment is there to be used, not abused.”

To find out more about Coast is Clear, visit them on Facebook.