Collecting plastic bottles & cans from the street is important

People who collect plastic bottles and cans from the street play an important role

Press release from 13.10.2017

People who collect plastic bottles and cans from the street play an important role in protecting the environment on the Seychelles clean, says the Secretary General for the Environment. The collectors take on the main island of Mahé, all the PET bottles and cans scattered all over the island that careless people have thrown into the environment.

13.10.2017

Seychellen.com

Author:
Karl Schnürch

Source:
Own research
Seychelles.digital

Secretary General for the Environment, Alain Decommarmond, said the road collectors were very important to Seychelles.

"We have quite a few collectors in the community and around the street corners to pick up the waste PET bottles and metal cans that we dump in the environment," Decommarmond said.

He said that these collectors should be considered as an integral part of the collection system as they also help in reducing the amount of waste material dumped in the landfill.

According to the Landscape and Solid Waste Management Authority, a state Company, which manages the collection of waste on the archipelago's main inhabited islands, a total of 70,000 tonnes of waste was dumped at the main landfill in Providence on the east coast of the main island last year. This represents 80 percent of the total waste generated by the Seychellois population. The remaining 20 percent - plastic bottles and scrap metal - is recycled.

Decommarmond believes that the government should provide incentives to support this informal sector, as the environment versus the people is always crucial.

The Secretary General for Environment said that this form of collection keeps the environment clean but also has its drawbacks that need to be addressed.

Nicol Henri, a street collector, said his main reason for collecting PET is to make money and buy drugs as he is an addict. He starts at 5am every day and collects around the capital Victoria.
"I am a homeless person. Collecting PET and cans from municipal waste is my only way to earn an income," Henri said.

Henri said there are only 15 young people doing the collection in Victoria and they are paid around 22 $ (SCR300) per day, but by the end of the month the amount may rise to 52 $ (SCR700).

"It could also hurt the tourism industry because it's unpleasant for tourists to see people digging garbage for collection," Decommarmond said.

Currently, hotels, landfills and businesses are the only consistent collection point for PET and aluminum cans, as no specific services are available for collection.

There are five main shopping centres in the 115-island archipelago where collectors deposit their cans and PET bottles. Three are on Mahe and one each on Praslin and La Digue, the second and third most populous islands respectively.

Alvin Leste, who buys PET bottles and metal cans from street collectors, said the collection is a lucrative business.

"I sell it to the redemption centres every year and I usually get US$7400 (SCR100,000). However, it takes a lot of bottles to get that amount of money, " Leste said.

Some locals see another benefit to collecting PET bottles and cans.

"Since the arrival of informal collectors, mostly done by drug users, theft in the country has reduced," said a local citizen, Sheryl Athanase.

She added that "they should, however, be given gloves, masks and T-shirts for hygiene and identification purposes."

According to a report - Solid Waste Management in Seychelles - informal collectors can collect around 5,000 PET and cans per day.

Plastic bottles and aluminum cans are not biodegradable and can accumulate in landfills if not recycled.

Author: Karl Schnürch

In 2007 I started the website Seychelles.com to write everything I experienced from my head. Since then I have been constantly optimizing and expanding Seychelles.com to eventually present a complete picture of Seychelles on this site.