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It seems there is no waste recycling and management. We need to create awareness as in trou deau douce opposite the no of plastic bottles and water in sea is horrific and damaging the lagoon especially from the tourist commercial boats

Waste management has several aspects. People especially the youngsters have to be educated and encouraged since they will bring in the changes.

Plastic bottles -- I am sure I have seen several collection points for these. Unfortunately most of them were full and not emptied out regularly. I do not know what happens to the bottles once they are collected. The botles should not be thrown into general waste but collected separately for recycling in some way.

Batteries and chemicals -- dangerous items. Ideally should again be collected separately for safe disposal. In the UK, every large store that sells batteries has to have 'collection bins' so that people can leave their used batteries there. There should be a unified approach to disposal, perhaps via government channels.

Food waste -- vegetable or animal origin; can be collected separately and used for composting.

These initiatives have to start somewhere, perhaps on a trial basis in one area first. Householders should be encouraged to collect and dispose these wastes separately, with some incentives.

Just my thoughts.

For a small island,  I find that the waste  management and recycling  practices in Mauritius to be quite inadequate and wanting. Solid and plastic waste is especially a huge problem. There are some recycling bins around estates but they seem to target  only plastic bottles and batteries.  There's very few collection points for recycling of glass, metal cans and other forms of plastic.

Littering is a huge problem here even on hiking trails and beaches. Often you  will find  beer cans/water bottles/take-away containers and other rubbish left behind without consideration for the environment. There seems to be minimal sensitization on this issue and people do not seem incentivized as the dumping regulations don't seem to be implemented much.

There is a full recycling facility at La Croisette in Grand Baie.

    There is a full recycling facility at La Croisette in Grand Baie.       

I think that should be available at every mall.

Waste recycling is a lucrative industry in Europe. Perhaps someone would like to set it up also in Mauritius?

@Bernard Wiehe44

That's great to know. Thank you.

we have separated glass cardboard tins and plastics and take them once a week to la croisette shopping centre to the recycling bins the organic waste is composted and put on garden rest is black bag.

The island suffers from a cultural indifference to waste and littering is common so much so storm drains are blocked during cyclones making flooding worse there is a way to go in education to curb this issue but for an island of this size and population density it need some hard scrutiny in government to improve things 

Having helped waste management companies at ensuring survival, I have found that the main profitability driver is achieving economies of scale of clean recyclable materials. There is a whole value chain behind the push to recycle - from collection to cleaning, sorting, packaging, shipping, re-processing, re-packaging, re-shipping, and re-selling.  Unfortunately there are no incentives for manufacturers to ensure that their products are "recycle-ready".  For example, the price of a single use water bottle already has a container manufacturing mark-up together with the cost of filtered water.  What happens to the bottle after use is of no concern to the manufacturer.  Even when the consumer pays a deposit for the container, this cost does not go to the manufacturer - but rather to the government which is supposed to fund recycling programs.

Recycling programs are not cheap as there is a high percentage of waste that cannot be recycled - because it is not profitable to do so.

One such waste problem is microplastics... Those are microscopic bits of plastic that have decomposed and now pollute most water ways - both fresh and sea water.   Consumption of microplastics can be hazardous.  Here is a link to a brief description -> )%20are%20called%20%E2%80%9Cmicroplastics.%E2%80%9D

The good news is that you can decrease the amount of microplastics ingested - by boiling water and then filtering ->   Please note that if you further compost the filter, the micro plastics can then be decomposed further by the bacteria in the soil - resulting in slow elimination.

I know that Mauritius has a lot more to do in order to rival the waste management practices of more developed countries but there are many things that each can do individually to help without needing the help of the government.

Hope that this one example of how to decrease microplastics in your life is useful.