While authorities have thrived since last year to limit the use of plastic bags and bottles by putting a levy on them, the apparent lack of clear policy at national level concerning the collection and recycling of a most pernicious form of solid waste, PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, is indeed surprising. Initiatives that are leading the way towards a hopefully cleaner and more sustainable future are mostly private. But at least they bring some relief.

The pollution potential of PET bottles should not be underestimated. According to recent studies, the sole item of daily consumption of mineral water amounts to 200 000 litres, one can just wonder about the mass of empty plastic waste. Other sources, like Claude Pougnet, from the Bottlers? Association, don?t hesitate to quote a yearly figure of 80 millions of PET bottles produced in our small paradise?

Reconverted end-products

Conscious of this unnoticed threat, the Bottlers? Association, regrouping the four big producers, Phoenix Beverages Limited, Quality Beverages, Vital and Centre Industriel de Pailles, has tried to canalise the sorting by subsidizing PET waste exportation. ?Each kilogram of PET waste is sold Rs 9.20.?

?A training program to develop waste collection on a professional basis has also been set up.?

In practice, Polypet Recyclers Ltd, a private recycling company in Solitude, collects and sorts most of this PET waste. Special dustbins in strategic spots, like supermarket parking lots, have been placed for the public, while a network of lorries criss-cross the country and collect private individuals? waste at scheduled hours.

The Polypet unit processes the waste into pellets, which are exported to South Africa. A waste reconverted into products that run from textile to construction. By these means, some 20% of Pet waste leaves the country. Another recycler has recently emerged: Power Plastic Co. Ltd, also found in Solitude, not only collects but it also recycles the material locally.

?For the moment we are processing about 15 tons of plastic products a month,? explains Power Plastic director, Louis Langlois, who plans an increase in capacity up to 100 tons for a fully sustainable activity. These, which include PET bottles, are being turned into a multitude of end products, from pellets to deckchairs and tables. The PET are treated separately from their cap and labels to produce pellets for the local market. Local buyers use these pellets to mix with first hand plastic for other types of bottles and objects.

But this kind of initiative remains mainly private and rare in that specific field. This underlines also the shyness of authorities.

Approached, a municipal inspector refused to comment a project of plastic waste sorting. The lack of means could explain this lack of involvement. ?We would have been thankful to the authorities, which set up what we consider an ecotax on plastic bottles, could encourage us by returning the Rs 1 charge each time we manage to export the old bottles?, comments Claude Pougnet. This would have given a small plus to the expansion of the PET bins network and of the collection itself.

Meanwhile, environmentalists and non-governmental organizations, such as Mission Verte, have set up programs to sustain PET waste disposal. Led jointly by UNDP GEF-SGP, the Mouvement pour le progrès de Roche-Bois and Phoenix Beverages, a remarkable program has aimed in that outskirt of Port-Louis to create an opportunity for the locals to find some additional form of revenue, obtained from the reselling of PET waste.

Yann Hookoomsing, its coordinator, explains: ?We have deployed some 11 bins in the eastern part of Roche-Bois on a pilot basis. Now, we consider expanding the project to the western parts of this neighborhood, in July. A training program to develop waste collection on a professional basis has also been set up.? A similar project is being undertaken by an NGO in collaboration with Power Plastic Co. Ltd in Grand-Bay.

That does not solve everything, a source of concern being the lack of environmental consciousness among the public. Plastic bottles are a commodity. Sensitisation to means of recycling PET bottles is urgently needed. Remember, each day sees more than 200,000 plastic bottles are coming on the market?