‘Clean Up The World’ campaign |18 September 2017

Amount of waste collected expected to surpass previous year’s figures

It’s another year and it’s another ‘Clean Up The World’ waste collection campaign which promises to surpass that of previous years.

This weekend the Land Waste Management Agency (LWMA) has been coordinating bulky waste collection and disposal, which happens to be one of its most popular activities.

As it has become tradition every September of every year, Seychellois were encouraged to clean up their homes and put all their excessive bulky wastes such as scrap metals, fridges and televisions near bin sites.

According to Lemmy Payet, consultant at LWMA, around 30 pick-ups were deployed on Mahé alone to collect these wastes.

Statistics recorded for Friday and Saturday’s campaign on Mahé predicts an increase in total waste collected compared to last year’s 460 tonnes.

“We have collected 326 tonnes of waste for these two days and we still have not recorded for Sunday. Moreover although the campaign ends at 10pm on Sunday, people will still be putting their waste at bin sites so we will have to mobilise our teams for at least eight to ten more days,” Mr Payet told Seychelles NATION.

LWMA also noted a surprising increase in tonnage in the North region of Mahé.

Over on Praslin the 263 tonnes of waste materials for Friday and Saturday alone has exceeded the 220 tonnes recorded in 2016.

La Digue faces the same predicament as its sister neighbour with 171 tonnes recorded for these respective days, compared to the total of 160 tonnes last year.

Understandably LWMA has once more urged people to reduce their individual carbon footprints and practice the three R’s of the environment: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Mr Payet recommended that Seychellois avoid buying what is not necessary. He nevertheless agreed that low quality of products which results into decreased life span of products also play a pivotal role in the yearly accumulation of bulky waste.

Although most of the wastes will be dumped on the landfill, the scrap metals will be exported by Samlo, a company specialising in scrap metal compression and exportation.

In its post-mortem LWMA plans to consider if it should dedicate two periods of the year to bulky waste collection rather than only one, in order to reduce the pressure on its resources.