The Saving Our Blue Campaign, is a newly launched nationwide education and awareness-raising initiative aimed at making the public more aware of environment degradation from unsustainable consumption of single-use plastics, particularly on our marine waters and the sea animals that live in it.

The campaign was launched by the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning.

“Land-based marine litter does not only involve the discarded litter of consumables on the beaches, but also our streets, parks, and afforested areas and community spaces. The emphasis of this campaign on sustainable consumption – particularly of single-use plastics which, when littered, significantly harms the environment,” Minister for the Environment Climate Change and Planning Aaron Farrugia said.

He added that “if we want a healthy environment, we need to start consuming more sustainably and exercise proper disposal of these plastics when we are outdoors on our beaches.”

He explained that, each year, tonnes of plastics end up leaking into the oceans as a result of improper waste disposal and littering, equivalent to more than 80% of the litter that accumulates on European beaches and oceans.

The top 10 items most commonly found on beaches consist of single-use plastics, with examples including cigarette butts, plastic bottles and food wrappers.

He said that a similar situation applies for Malta, where during last year’s edition of the Saving Our Blue Campaign, 25kg of cigarette butts were collected during five awareness-raising beach events of only three hours each.

Photo: DOI/Clodagh O’Neill

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