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

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.  

Elgin Crea, a young environmental advocate and board member of youth-led NGO SYAH-Seychelles, told Daily Maverick: “It isn’t just a visual eyesore, it affects a lot of the community because you just want to get to the beach and there’s so much trash. It’s disgusting, it pollutes all the natural resources we have. We have estuaries connected to the beaches and it creates this run-off of dirty water, the sewage and more which all gets washed into the rivers and ocean. It’s also really hard to clean up because most of the plastic is microplastics, which is nearly impossible to clean out of the natural environment.”

Crea has been participating in clean-ups across the island since she was a child, and said it was astounding how year after year mounds of pollution, particularly plastic pollution, find their way on to their shores, affecting not just ecosystem health, but also human health.

She said it was important to recognise that the Seychelles, like many African islands, was a big ocean state, and so was deeply vested in the influence of oceans on coastal communities and ecosystems. Which was why these efforts to increase the capacity of African islands to better deal with waste and pollution were so necessary. 

IslandPlas and why African islands are crucial in the battle against plastic pollution

Where is the pollution coming from?

The challenges of carrying out a project like this 

A living blue wall for conserved and restored critical blue ecosystems 

The Great Blue Wall connects the Kilifi Seascape in Kenya, the Tanga-Pemba Seascape in Tanzania, the Inhambane and Cabo Delgado Seascape in Mozambique, the Antsiranana-Diana Seascape in Madagascar, the Moheli Seascape in Comoros, the Port Launey-Cap Ternay Seascape in the Seychelles, Mauritius, South Africa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde, and Somalia. (Photo: IUCN)

These are the pilot seascapes of the Great Blue Wall. (Photo: IUCN)

1. Biodiversity: Effectively and equitably conserve at least 30% of the Ocean by 2030, in a nature- and people-positive way.


2. Climate: Conserve and restore critical blue ecosystems to achieve net gain by 2030 compared to 2020 and sequester at least 100 million tons of CO2.


3. Economy: Unlock the development of a regenerative blue economy that directly benefits 70 million people in coastal communities while also delivering conservation outcomes.