Seychellois and Swiss students team up to address solid waste management |23 April 2018

Nineteen students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technolog (SFIT) in Zurich will collaborate with students from the University of Seychelles (UniSey) to tackle some of the waste management challenges in the Seychelles.

This project is a follow up to a similar project carried out in 2016.

In this project, transdisciplinary methods are to be applied to frame concrete problems in the waste management systems focusing on waste sorting at the source and recycling options.

During the upcoming months a team of interdisciplinary researchers from different backgrounds such as Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Agricultural Sciences and Infrastructure will work together to find relevant results in the emerging challenge of solid waste management.

In two weeks’ from now, three representatives from the Seychelles will visit Switzerland to validate the research questions and learn about the Swiss Waste Management System.

The representatives are Fredrick Kinloch, the director Waste Management in the Ministry of Environment, Rahul Mangroo, the deputy chief executive of the Land Waste Management Agency (LWMA) and Mark Benoiton, the Environment Health & Safety manager at the Indian Ocean Tuna Ltd (IOT).

During their stay in Zurich, they will go on field excursions, to recycling centres as well as an incineration plant and also visit the bio-waste energy plant in Zurich which will give them an insight into the operational process.

Additionally, knowledge will be exchanged among this multi stakeholder setting  which will be a key element of the visit. 

Workshops and validation exercises based on clear structured research questions are also included on the programme of the visit.

A communiqué from SFIT states that waste is a major challenge in the Seychelles as waste volume increases steadily and the current management practice is landfilling. Today, waste is seen as one of the priorities which has to be addressed for a clean and sustainable future in Seychelles.

“In a country where a nature-friendly development is a priority and space a limiting factor, there is a need to follow innovative strategies. This includes considering options for different kinds of waste, including stakeholders from the government, industry and households and acting from local to international levels. To accomplish this, research in different areas by an interdisciplinary team is indispensable,” the communiqué says.

Findings of this year’s project on the preparation phase which will be carried out in July will be communicated to the public so as to be transparent.

The ongoing work will be communicated on an upcoming blog www.seywaste.com   as of April 20, 2018 and also on social media such as Facebook and Twitter (#seywaste).