Landfill Seychelles

[Rebbeca Schulke]

Solidwaste management poses a significant challenge to Seychelles. As a small island state surrounded by the ocean, there is a scarcity of land and a lack of engineered landfills. The island generates about 80,000 tons of waste per year, though this number is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2030. Currently, the waste is disposed of in communal bins around the island and transferred to a landfill facility. However, the primary landfill on the main island of Mahe is expected to reach full capacity by 2025.

On 13 July, the UNDP launched the SDG Investor Map, which addresses the need to mobilise private sector investment in critical waste management infrastructures. This market intelligence tool identifies concrete and emerging Investment Opportunity Areas to attract private capital to national development needs and policy priorities in five sectors with strong SDG positive impact. This will help to scale up the necessary investments in circular economy opportunities contributing to a reduction in the amount of solid waste being directed to the landfill.

Note: The Joint SDG Fund's joint programmes are under the prestige leadership of the Resident Coordinator Office and implementing United Nations Agencies. With sincere appreciation for the contributions from the European Union and Governments of Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and our private sector funding partners, for a transformative movement towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.

Solid waste management poses a significant challenge to Seychelles. As a small island state surrounded by the ocean there is a scarcity of land, which is combined with a lack of engineered landfills. The island generates about 80,000 tons of waste per year though this number is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2030. Currently the waste is disposed in communal bins around the island and transferred to a landfill facility. However, the primary landfill on the main island of Mahe is expected to reach full capacity by 2025.

Facilitating the implementation of a circular economy is of critical importance to reduce the amount of waste flowing to the landfills. On World Environment Day the United Nations Secretary-General emphasized:

On 13 July, the UNDP launched the SDG Investor Map, which addresses the need to mobilize private sector investment in critical waste management infrastructures. This market intelligence tool identifies concrete and emerging Investment Opportunity Areas to attract private capital to national development needs and policy priorities in five sectors with strong SDG positive impact. This will help to scale up the necessary investments in circular economy opportunities contributing to a reduction in the amount of solid waste being directed to the landfill.

Although no widespread legal framework exists, the Seychellois government has established programs with beverage producers, breweries, and importers in the country to reduce container waste, due to the country's limited landfill space. Their deposit program is informally referred to as a "levy system", but is ostensibly a container deposit scheme. The programs are funded through the Waste Management Trust Fund, set up in 2007 primarily to "finance the levy system for PET bottles and aluminum cans." [5]

While there are no government-run collection points, consumers may drop off their containers at licensed, company-run Redeem Centres. As of 2015, there are six redemption centers on Mahe, Praslin, and La Digue. Most of these containers are processed and exported; the Harini company is the only exporter of PET bottles, while De-Recycling exports aluminum cans. [6]

The government has also looked into the possibility of a levy/deposit on glass alcoholic bottles, announcing a pre-certification process to operate redemption centers for alcoholic bottles in 2019. [7] In 2021, the Seychellois government announced that all alcoholic bottles will be available for redemption starting January 18, 2021, at any of the six redemption centers allocated by the Ministry of Environment. Consumers may book an appointment in advance for drop-off. [8]

While the government partnership was established in 2007, some local companies have had existing community deposit programs.; SeyBrew has had a return scheme for beer bottles since the 1970s, where they charged 2 rupees for every bottle as the deposit. [9]

[4] "Seychelles Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP): Plastic Leakage Results and Recommendations A Report to the World Bank." University of Georgia, Center for Circular Materials Management, New Materials Institute. June 30, 2019.

The Bottle Bill Resource Guide is an ongoing project of the Container Recycling Institute, dedicated to providing comprehensive information about beverage container deposit laws across the US and around the world.

Laure said that it is normal procedure to cover the landfill. Currently, coral fill is being used for this purpose, but Laure explained that sometimes there are challenges to get enough coral fill for the landfill cover.

The glass bottle scheme is the latest initiative by the government to better manage waste. This is after the first landfill located at Providence, on the eastern coast of the main island of Mahe, was closed and a second sanitary landfill was opened in 2017.

This was the island nation's first state-of-the-art facility to reduce underground pollution and protect groundwater supply. The sanitary landfill, funded by the European Union, covers an area of 26,000 square metres.

On average, the first landfill at Providence, which is now closed, received 45,000 tons of waste per year since 1999 with a maximum of 75,538 tons recorded in 2010. In 2005, it was estimated that the landfills on Praslin and La Digue received 3,500 tons and 670 tons respectively per year.

The project, which aims to promote sustainable solid waste management and circularity in Seychelles, will be implemented by the Landscape and Waste Management Agency (LWMA) under the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment.

The director of the Division for Waste, Enforcement and Permit Division, Nanette Laure, described the project "as a crucial initiative for the country as it is expected to improve and address urgent challenges in solid waste management in an integrated manner. The management of solid waste is a priority for the government."

The project will have three components - improving the solid waste management system, strengthening operations and increasing disposal capacity at Providence Landfill. This component aims to improve the design and management of the landfill infrastructure through a design-build-operate contract.

The project also has a management component to support the incremental operating costs for the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) and project management consultants. These include measures to strengthen the capacity of the PIU to manage the environmental, and social risks of the project activities.

Laure added that there is an entrepreneurship component, because to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill, people, especially women, will be encouraged to take up innovative businesses that deal with this waste.

The deputy chief executive of the LWMA, Rahul Mangroo said,"The Providence Landfill is gradually filling up, soon we will have to find ways to improve this situation, and part of the project is dedicated to fixing the infrastructure of the landfill and increase capacity while also providing a management component to ensure that waste is dealt with more efficiently."

Mangroo clarified that as part of the requirement for the loan with the World Bank, LWMA must conduct consultations, especially with the residents in the vicinity of the landfill. This will also be done with other stakeholders to provide them with sufficient information on project risks and impacts, as well as potential opportunities.

In the wake of the call for projects launched in October 2020, 38 participants met during the partnership days organized on May 27 and 28. These days and the exchanges that followed led to the emergence of six collaborative projects selected in August 2021. They targeted the following actions and objectives

Among these 6 projects, the selection committee, which met on 30 November 2021, designated the 3 award-winning projects of the program. For their launch, they will benefit from support over the first six months and a start-up budget. The complementarity of the selected projects, as well as their feasibility, have been carefully evaluated according to a grid of criteria established beforehand.

This campaign will be led by several local actors and brings together multiple skills, such as the Department of Blue Economy, the Foundation for Sustainable Tourism, the Ministry of Education of Seychelles or IRD. It will aim to improve awareness and education on waste among the population of Seychelles and the various actors of civil society. The objectives of this campaign:

This project brings together two local NGOs focused on sustainable tourism development, the Sustainable Tourism Foundation (SSTF) and the Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association (SHTA), a local plastic waste solutions consultancy, Yes Consulting, and a social enterprise based in India: Sanshodhan. Sanshodhan has developed a digital application that links manufacturers, consumers, and recycling companies in a single virtuous cycle. This networking promotes a more transparent, efficient, and sustainable recyclable waste management system. The idea is to adapt this concept to the Seychelles context.

While reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, this project aims to promote simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-use technologies to treat and transform waste. It is based on a global community project: the Precious Plastic Project. The idea is to involve local actors and individuals in designing useful and low-impact products to eventually develop a micro-circular economy by creating new products.

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