Mdina
The former capital, a walled silent city on a hilltop, almost entirely without cars and with very few residents.
Bins out from
4.30am
Collection starts
8.30am
Council region
Western Region
What it is like.
Mdina has been inhabited for three thousand years and has been walled for most of them. Fewer than three hundred people live inside, which is why it is called the Silent City, and why it empties in the evening.
There is very little accommodation within the walls. Most people stay in Rabat immediately outside and walk in.
Getting around
Buses stop outside the gate at Rabat. Inside, it is on foot.
Worth going for.
- The bastion walls
- Views across most of Malta, as far as the harbours.
- St Paul's Cathedral
- The cathedral of the old capital.
- Palazzo Falson
- A medieval house museum.
Running a short let in Mdina.
The sign at the door
Bags out
Which bag, which day.
The day schedule is national and has not changed since 2 January 2023. Only the collection time varies by locality, and in Mdina it is 8.30am.
Monday
Food and garden wasteWhite bag
Tuesday
General rubbishBlack bag
Wednesday
Food and garden wasteWhite bag
Thursday
RecyclingGrey or green bag
Friday
Food and garden wasteWhite bag
GlassReusable container, not a bag
Glass on the first and third Friday of the month only.
Saturday
General rubbishBlack bag
Sunday
No collection
Not the night before
Bags may go out up to 4 hours before collection, so from 4.30am in Mdina. Putting them out earlier, including the evening before, is an offence rather than a habit.
Fines of up to €300 have been reported for bags out more than 4 hours early, and up to €150 for the wrong day or the wrong bag. Enforcement is shared between LESA, the police and the local council. The Malta Independent. If your welcome pack says the night before, it is telling guests to do the thing that gets fined, and a waste breach established by another authority can reach your licence.
A missed collection
Western Region covers L-Imdina, not us. Email [email protected] or call 22266603.
Where this comes from
Published by ERA and WasteServ on wastecollection.mt. Last checked against the source on 3 August 2026. Bags may go out up to 4 hours before collection.
The week on one sheet, for Mdina
A landscape page with the seven days across it and the bag drawn on each, carrying the collection time and how early bags may go out. For the back of a cupboard door.
Bottles and cans carry a deposit.
Drinks containers sold in Malta carry a deposit of 10c, added at the till. It covers single-use cans and bottles holding between 0.1 and 3 litres, in aluminium, steel, glass or PET.
The deposit comes back as a voucher, taken off the bill at a retail shop. A container dropped in the grey or green recycling bag gives it up, and a guest checking out at the end of a stay usually has a fortnight of them in the flat.
BCRS Malta Ltd runs the scheme and puts over 300 return machines in supermarkets, larger beverage retailers and public recycling hubs. It does not publish them as a list, so its own finder is the only current source for which machine is nearest Mdina.
Published by BCRS Malta Ltd on bcrsmalta.mt. Last checked against the source on 8 August 2026. The scheme has run since 14 November 2022.
Getting to the airport.
The X1 to X4 airport buses were withdrawn on 20 April 2025 and replaced by Airport Direct. Listings and guidebooks still send guests to the X2 and the X3, which no longer run.
No route names Mdina
Airport Direct serves the tourist corridor and little else, and neither publisher names Mdina on a route that calls at the terminal. The usual answer is a change at Valletta, or one of the apps. Check the journey planner for what runs on the day.
Routes and fares published by Malta Public Transport, and the ordinary routes that call at the terminal by Malta International Airport. Last checked against both on 8 August 2026. Times are not repeated here because they change with the season, so take them from the journey planner on the day.