The Plastic Horizon – towards and beyond

Olga Biegus, Independent, Environmental Policy and International Cooperation 

Since 2024, on the United Nations World Cleanup Day (20th September), millions of volunteers across the world fill bags, stack bottles, and drag nets from the water to clean their immediate surroundings. This year, also in Mauritius, dozens signed up to help make the island’s beaches, forests, and urban areas a little cleaner, mostly by removing plastic waste.  

In November last year, on the Coco Island (part of the Saint Brandon archipelago), researchers from the Plastic Odyssey and local NGOs (1), in only a few days, collected 5.3 tons of waste (a limit of what could be safely transported by sea). At least twice as much remained. It is sobering evidence of how much sea-borne waste can be found on a remote, small stretch of land, as no corner of the world is safe from plastic pollution any longer. If such a place can be so heavily affected, how much waste should one expect to collect on the main island in only one day?  

A global problem that keeps growing 

It is estimated that humanity now produces more than 460 million tonnes of plastic waste every year (2,3), with production projected to triple by 2060. Likely more than 11 million tonnes leak into the ocean annually — the equivalent of 350 kilograms every second – with the number estimated to reach 29 million metric tonnes by 2040 (4). More than 40% of all plastic produced is single-use packaging: used in minutes, present in the environment for decades - not biodegrading, fragmenting into macro-, micro- and nano-plastic now found in rain, in Arctic ice, the ocean floor, and in human blood. Around 16,000 chemicals are associated with plastics. Some 4,000 are already known to be hazardous (5). The true cost of plastic — when health impacts, environmental cleanup, lost fisheries and tourism damage are included — is estimated to be more than ten times its market price (6). To close the tap, the Global Plastic Treaty (7) is currently being negotiated, but it is a long way from being ratified and transposed into national law.  

Plastic pollution is a complex problem globally and regionally, but it is especially challenging for Small Island Developing States such as Mauritius and its neighbours. Currently, the Western Indian Ocean region is recognised as a marine sink where land-based plastic debris, single-use packaging, and microplastics accumulate on beaches, in surface waters, and in seabed sediments. The situation in neighbouring countries differs and highlights individual policies, attitudes and geographical differences that shape the regional picture (8). 

Mauritius and its plastic

In Mauritius, near the landfill sites, researchers found over 230 microplastics per kilogram of soil, dominated by polypropylene. Rivers are major highways for the transport of plastic, carrying mismanaged plastic waste from inland sources toward the ocean (8,9). Beaches accumulate plastic daily from both river discharge and ocean currents; between 2019 and 2022, researchers collected nearly 27,000 litter items across 31 surveyed beach sites (10).   

The 2022 data estimated total waste generation in Mauritius at 518,325 tonnes, of which approximately 14% (72,500 tonnes) was plastic. That’s roughly 1.11 kilograms of plastic waste per person, per day. Only around 2,903 tonnes (4-5 %) were collected by registered recyclers and exporters, while the remaining 69,663 tonnes (96%) were landfilled. Meanwhile, plastic imports have risen from 54,000 tonnes in 2022 to 65,000 tonnes in 2024 (9), with Mare Chicose at its critical capacity. No other solution, except recycling, currently exists in the country.  

Beyond the numbers and ecological damage, there are ethical and aesthetic aspects. Waste sites expose populations to toxic air and water. Plastic pollution and waste are borne disproportionately by the Global South. Vulnerable communities face greater health and economic burdens due to degraded local ecosystems. Plastic pollution also harms the tourism sector in Mauritius, which accounts for roughly 10% of the local economy: tourists report preferring to stay in sustainability-focused and circularity-friendly facilities and visit clean beaches. Cleaning up existing waste and polluted sites is seen as reactive.   

A roadmap to 2035 

Mauritius finalised its National Strategy Plan-Roadmap (NSP) in January 2026. It contains meaningful commitments and a clear framework. If delivered as planned, by 2035, Mauritius will: 

• track all plastic flows from import to end-of-life through a national inventory system;  
• eliminate non-essential single-use plastics in phases as alternatives become available;  
• collect at least 80% of all plastic waste through a three-bin system for 300,000 households;  
• reduce plastic packaging consumption by 50% by 2030; hold major sectors accountable through voluntary Plastic Reduction Pledges;  
• cut virgin pellet imports by shifting to recycled content where feasible; run fully operational Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) schemes and a PET Deposit Refund System;  
• establish marine plastic baselines across macro, meso, and microplastic levels;  
• build a reuse economy around standardised returnable containers; develop phased, standards-backed domestic recycling capacity;  
• and manage all non-recyclable waste through traceable end-of-life solutions — all anchored in the new Plastic Governance and Control Act and coordinated through a dedicated Department of Plastic Management. 

As of late 2026, many initiatives, namely the three-bin system, the Integrated Waste Processing Facility (IWPF), and the PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) Bottle Deposit Refund Scheme, are slowly being launched.  

Meanwhile, grassroots organisations have been working tirelessly in the space left open by institutions, sometimes for decades. To date, We-Recycle has reached thousands of schoolchildren and diverted more than 180,000 kilograms of plastic. Mission Verte yielded nearly 190 tonnes of diverted waste (paper and cardboard, PET bottles and other plastic, electronic waste, and aluminium). Many smaller initiatives have emerged on the island more recently, but these efforts remain underfunded and disconnected from formal policy.  

On the research side, a handful of important international initiatives are underway right now, including the Indian Ocean Commission’s ExPLOI programmes and the IUCN’s IslandPlas, which are filling local data gaps, raising awareness, and developing the circular economy. Other programmes (11) focus on promoting waste reduction and effective recycling.  

The business sector initiatives have been promising, especially in the tourism domain. Reducing waste, rather than recycling, has become a realistic ambition for many hotels, while companies such as WeCycle, Maurilait, along with other Eclosia Group members, as well as SOFAP, PIM Limited, and Archemics have introduced waste-diversion programmes.  

Plastic is everyone's business 

With current collection rates at around 5% and the Roadmap targeting 80% by 2035, the potential — and the urgency — for scaling up is clear. The business sector can and should lead the transition through ambitious regional cooperation (9) . The Plastic Transition Fund, earmarked at 20% of the NSP budget (MUR 104.4 million), is a worthwhile objective. The fund does not yet exist, but given the urgency of the plastic pollution challenge, the sector could and should actively support its establishment. On the other hand, plastic waste should not be seen as a problem but as an opportunity. The Expanded Producer Responsibility (EPR) should be embraced rather than negotiated with delays. As Professor Atiq Zaman reiterated during the recent Plastic Horizon event, global agreements, such as the Plastic Treaty, can set the direction, but successful circular solutions to plastic pollution ultimately depend on building the right local ecosystem. This message echoes across a growing body of technical literature, which consistently highlights how far businesses have trailed behind — and how essential a whole-society approach is to addressing any complex problems. Business, globally and locally, has contributed to plastic pollution; the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) methodological Assessment on Business and Biodiversity makes precisely that case (12) because plastic pollution is everyone’s business. 

Such ‘right local ecosystem’ would need to go beyond recycling. It would need to actively enable solutions that effectively implement the circular economy and, as a first step, reduce the production of plastic, especially single-use plastic. The Association of Mauritian Manufacturers (AMM), Business Mauritius, MCCI, Consumer Association of Mauritius (ACIM), SME and Cooperatives are the natural choice to assume leadership over this transformation, under the expert guidance and scrutiny of civil society organisations.  

The much-discussed behavioural change is also needed, whether for small or large businesses, communities, or individuals. The NSP provides a robust plan for such change, with education targets (13) embracing a long-term approach. Beyond education and awareness-raising, the government and business sector are capable of enabling that change. And it will become easier, if Refuse → Rethink → Reduce → Reuse → Repair → Refurbish → Remanufacture → Repurpose → Recycle → Recover becomes an affordable choice. A deposit-return scheme for PET bottles — already in regulatory preparation — makes the financially rational choice aligned with the environmental one. Three-bin waste-separation systems should be standard operational infrastructure in every institution or office. Schools could not only teach about recycling but also encourage it by initiating recycling-bin construction challenges and cleanups. A single, up-to-date national recycling directory and information leaflet — where to go, what is accepted, what can and cannot be processed domestically — should be provided in every council, town and village. Finally, enforcement must become real. A functioning public reporting system for illegal dumping, with consequences equivalent to other civil offences, would begin to shift social norms. 

Beyond the horizon 

Regionally, WIO countries must move beyond goodwill and toward genuine structural cooperation. Individual island states do not generate sufficient waste volumes to make certain recycling streams economically viable. Sharing infrastructure, coordinating monitoring, and publishing annual plastic data against a common methodology are the preconditions for any island state to solve this problem at all.  

The Plastic Horizon event was convened to provide the public with more information about where Mauritius stands today and what its outlook could be. The course has been set, and the National Strategy is in place. Let’s ensure that in the years to come, less plastic waste will reach our ocean, beaches, forests, and surroundings, and fewer cleanups will be needed. 

If business as usual continues, we find more of the same — more volunteers, more roadmaps, more waste, and no viable solution. In this scenario, indeed, we could go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost-effective, as environmental scientist Donella Meadows observed.  

But if governments follow their own policies, if businesses accept what they have externalised, if communities are given the infrastructure to act on what they already know — then we have a chance to choose what lies beyond the horizon.  

References: 

1. Plastic Odyssey. (2026, February 25). Engineering the unreachable: Innovation in remote island plastic cleanups. https://plasticodyssey.org/en/engineering-the-unreachable-innovation-in-remote-island-plastic-cleanups/  
2. United Nations Environment Programme. (2021). Drowning in plastics: Marine litter and plastic waste vital graphics. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/drowning-plastics-marine-litter-and-plastic-waste-vital-graphics  
3. OECD. (2022). Global plastics outlook: Economic drivers, environmental impacts and policy options. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/de747aef-en. The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries.  
4. United Nations Environment Programme. (2021). Pollution to solution: A global assessment of marine litter and plastic pollution [Interactive web resource]. https://www.unep.org/interactives/pollution-to-solution/?lang=EN  
5. Monclús, L., Arp, H. P. H., Groh, K. J., Faltynkova, A., Løseth, M. E., Muncke, J., Wang, Z., Wolf, R., Zimmermann, L., & Wagner, M. (2025). Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics. Nature, 643, 349–355. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09184-8  
6. WWF. (2023). Who pays for plastic pollution? https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/who-pays-for-plastic-pollution/  
7. United Nations Environment Programme. (n.d.). Intergovernmental negotiating committee on plastic pollution. https://www.unep.org/inc-plastic-pollution  
8. Maes, T., & Preston-Whyte, F. (Eds.). (2023). The African marine litter outlook. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08626-7  
9. Ministry of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mauritius. (2026b, January 27). National strategy plan/roadmap for a plastic pollution-free Mauritius: Final report. https://environment.govmu.org/Documents/Plastic%20free/Final%20National%20Strategy%20Plan-Roadmap%20-%2027%20Jan%202026.pdf  
10. WIOMSA/SST. (2025). Working towards SDG 14.1 in the Western Indian Ocean region: A focus on marine litter.  
11. Ministry of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mauritius. (n.d.). Circular economy. https://environment.govmu.org/Pages/Circular%20Economy.aspx  
12. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. (2023). Methodological assessment on the impact of business on biodiversity. IPBES Secretariat. https://www.ipbes.net/business-impact  
13. Ministry of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mauritius. (2026a, January 20). National awareness & education programme for the national strategy plan/roadmap for a plastic pollution-free Mauritius: Final report. https://environment.govmu.org/Documents/Plastic%20free/Final%20National%20Awareness%20&%20Education%20Programme%20-%2020%20%20Jan%202026.pdf 

This article was written as part of the Plastic Horizon Event organised by the Charles Telfair Centre on 26 August 2026. Read more about the event here. 

Main photo: Plastic Pollution in Rivière du Rempart Mauritius. © Olga Biegus 

Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).