What started off as mini clean-ups by two Mellieħa residents in February led to the clearing away of some 2.2 tonnes of rubbish, including car parts and rusty appliances.

The rubbish was collected from the countryside, roads and the coastline during weekly clean-ups by a group of 15 volunteers, who are now also looking into planting trees in their locality.

Daniela Cini told Times of Malta it all started last year when she decided to start picking up litter during her regular walks.

“The amount of litter I always came across was so disheartening that I decided to start taking a bin bag and picker on my walks,” she said.

Her first mini clean-ups were in the Mistra and Red Tower areas.

Then in February she attended a clean-up organised by the local council where she met Albert Attard, who, like her, had also been clearing up rubbish from public spaces since 2019. They joined forces and started organising regular clean-ups.

Sadly, during the COVID-19 self-isolation times, they came across even more rubbish in the countryside, probably left behind by picnic-goers as people started frequenting areas like Miżieb to be away from the crowds. 

Cini and Attard decided to set up a Facebook page called No to litter Mellieħa, and they were soon joined by like-minded volunteers.

The piles of rubbish collected included rusty appliances.

The group works in collaboration with the local council, Clean Malta and also private companies to keep Mellieħa’s open spaces as litter free as possible.

It also aims at raising greater awareness about the negative effect of litter on the environment and calls on people to respect Nature Trust’s green country code.

Among others, this code urges people to refrain from collecting or causing harm to flora and fauna and avoid noise and light pollution.

The code also calls on people to refrain from disposing of waste in the countryside or sea, and to avoid lighting fires in vulnerable locations such as underneath trees or in caves.

Last week, the group of volunteers received a donation of €1,000 from a private company to fund the planting of trees on a piece of public land.