Redeem centres and recycling facilities resume operation on March 20 |16 March 2023

The press conference

All redeem centres and recycling facilities on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue will resume operation effective Monday March 20, 2023 for cans and glass only.

This was announced by the principal secretary for Environment Denis Matatiken and Rahul Mangroo, the deputy chief executive of the Land Waste Management Agency (LWMA), at a press conference yesterday.

PS Matatiken said the main reason for not opening the PET recycling centre is that “the Environment department already has schemes for PET bottles, cans and glass bottles. Last year, it was decided to close the centres earlier and we closed them in November instead of December. This was mainly because of some challenges beyond our control. Last year the shipping lines were not taking plastic bottles and even the bottles that were being shredded by a local shredder could not be shipped. The Ukraine/Russia war also caused major delays with an increase in freight. On the ministry’s side we helped in exporting 10 containers of PET bottles to Vietnam. We are still in negotiation to have more countries to take the PET bottles.”

Mr Mangroo explained that his agency recently got the responsibility to manage the recycling of PET bottles, cans and glass.

“We currently have four centres on Mahé – Anse Royale, Providence, Chez Deenu and St Louis. There is one centre on Praslin and one on La Digue. It is important to note that there has been accumulation from members of the public and we are urging customers with large quantities to book an appointment at their desired venue to avoid delays and setbacks.”

Customers will be advised when trading of PET will commence. Individuals should be aware that they should bring their PET bottles, cans and glass to redeem centres and not to recyclers.

“The structure in place is that the redeem centres are responsible to pay. Officers of LWMA are there to verify the number.

Is it time for us to change our lifestyle?

Since 2008 to September 2022, a total of 27,960,267.4 PET bottles were collected by redeem centres and shredded.

From January to September 2022 only 18,205,320 PET bottles were collected. For Seychelles who have a population of just over 100,000, these figures are quite alarming.

The highest number of PET bottles collected and shredded was in 2018 with 28,823,396.96.

PS Matatiken reassured that the ministry will try to facilitate the recycling process but it is also high time to rethink on the usage of PET. “If we had an industry here, we would have been in a better position and this is an opportunity for businesses to think about. Any firm who is thinking of venturing into this kind of business has to be aware of all costs.”

The advantages of recycling reduces waste sent to landfills and incinerators, prevents pollution, conserves natural resources, conserves energy and creates jobs, producing economic benefits.

Text & photo by Vidya Gappy