Last Updated on Monday, 15 June, 2020 at 1:54 pm by Andre Camilleri
The winners of the “Best Environment Impact” category in the Lovin Malta Social Media Award, NGO Zibel will be coordinating all sea based operations from the Manoel Island Marina, following a collaboration agreement with MIDI plc. Zibel will be berthing their boat at the Manoel Island Marina, which is expected to become their operations hub for the summer months.
Building on this collaboration, a sponsored Seabin by Norwex will also be installed at the Manoel Island Marina which will join the larger fleet of Seabins around Malta. Each Seabin collects plastics and debris range in from fibers of 2mm to jerrycans and large plastic bottles. This brings the active number of Seabins in the area up to two, giving Zibel an interesting insight into debris in the Gzira area. By recording wind conditions, waste build up can properly be monitored and forecasted as the collective knowledge gained from the Seabin units begin to provide sufficient data.
MIDI plc spokesman said that “we are pleased to collaborate with Zibel in their endeavour to keep our beaches and coastal areas clean from waste. We encourage volunteers to support this NGO during their clean-ups and other environmentally friendly initiatives”.
Whilst thanking MIDI plc for their support Andrew Schembri, Co-founder and Chairman of Zibel said that, “Berthing is a substantial cost for the NGO and is vital to our boat operations as we require a considerable wash-down post clean-up work with the Zibel Boat. We are aiming to gather at least 20 tonnes from the coastline and seabed this year, thanks in large part to our boat and of course our beloved volunteers”.
The NGO reminds other boat owners and users to keep a vigilant eye on the sea this summer for plastics, ropes and other debris, encouraging people to send over locations and evidence of debris to them via their respective social media channels.
Since it was set up in 2017, Zibel has collected over 80 tonnes of waste from the Maltese environment including beaches and coastal areas, connected with thousands of volunteers during various clean-ups and partnered with over 120 private organisations.
