IslandPlas initiative aims to tackle plastic pollution as African islands drown in a sea of waste

Photo credit: Elgin Crea: Retrieved from dailymaverick.co.za

Plastic pollution is a global problem but its impact on the shores of African islands and their communities far exceeds that of inland countries, flowing in from both countries in the global north and from within these island states.

Mauritius, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, and Zanzibar produce around 200,000 tons of plastic waste per year with only around 40% of it collected. To understand the scale of this, if an adult elephant weighs an average of five tons, 200,000 tons of plastic  waste would equate to 40,000 adult elephants!

These small islands lack economies of scale, as well as the waste management and industry infrastructure needed to enable a robust circular economy for plastics. This results in unsustainable waste management practices such as landfilling and an increased risk for large-scale plastic leakage into the environment, especially the ocean.

At the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Africa Conservation Cconference in Nairobi in June, the IslandPlas initiative was started to give these islands a fighting chance against plastic pollution on their shores by implementing waste management and recycling initiatives that reduce plastic waste leakage in the targeted seven African islands and help them transition into plastic waste-free islands.