A new survey issued by the National Statistics Office for World Environment Day found that, during the March 2023 period, cigarettes were the most noted litter item on local beaches at 54%.
This was followed by plastic cups at around 18%. meanwhile, 18% of smokers admitted to disposing cigarette butts on the ground, with 17% using the yellow cigarette bins on beaches.
The rest of the survey found that 62% of persons try to avoid plastic packaging in their household grocery shopping.
A whopping 92% claimed that they would consider buying alternative products with less packaging. 63% said they use their own reusable bags for shopping.
Just 21% said they used bottle refill systems, followed by 20% who claimed to consider the environment as the topmost priority when shopping.
Bottles were the most single-use plastic item bought at 79%, followed by food wrappers at 61% and containers at 51%.
The survey also found that 97% of persons surveyed are aware of littering being a public offence in Malta.
69% were not aware that cigarette butts consist of single-use plastic, followed by 63% who noticed an increase in alternatives to single-use plastics for sale.
49% heard about the term ‘micro-plastics’, with 47% being aware of Saving Our Blue campaign.
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