Waste Management Challenges and Solutions for SIDS: The Maldives
Photo by Dion Tavenier
Roughly 1.5 million tourists visit the Maldives each year coming with high expectations of crystal-clear lagoons and pristine beaches.(1) Contrary to what tourists find on private resort beaches, where washed-up debris is often removed with the first rays of sunlight, on local and uninhabited islands, waste items accumulate and rarely get removed, processed or upcycled.
Island nations face huge logistical challenges in terms of waste management. These challenges are often ignored to feed the picture-perfect image that we all want to keep in our minds when we hear the word “Maldives” or the names of other bucket list destinations.
This week’s blog will look at the waste management challenges facing The Maldives and the solutions that are targeting the issue.
The challenge
The Maldives consists of around 2,000 islands of which over 200 are uninhabited and of this, there are currently 167 resort islands.(2) In a country which is 99% water, logistics are at times tricky and challenging. The capital, Malé, which hosts over one third of the Maldivian population, is the central hub where all tourists, supplies, and also waste are passing through to reach their final destinations.
Waste management has always been a problem in the island nation of the Maldives. In 1991 the government transferred a small island near Malé by reclaiming land in an attempt to tackle the growing problem of overflowing garbage cans in the densely populated city.(3) Since its initiation, this island – Thilafushi – has grown dramatically and can now be seen from far away as piles of waste and smoke from incinerators tower over the turquoise blue waters of the Indian Ocean. This island has sadly earned its reputation of the “garbage island” and is infamous for this nickname around the globe. The idea of outsourcing the generated garbage to another island did not go as hoped, but made the issue of a lacking waste management system even more visible.(4)
Garbage from local islands as well as resort islands is being shipped to Thilafushi from all over the Maldives. Travelling hundreds of kilometres by boat, the government estimates that around 25% of the rubbish ends up in the Indian Ocean on its way over to Garbage Island.(5) Not surprisingly, the main kind of waste is plastics in all shapes and colours. The top of that list is led by plastic bottles. The Maldives holds barely any groundwater, so naturally, drinking water needs to be distributed, but there are plans of phasing out any single-use plastics by 2023.(6) As of now, however, thousands of plastic bottles pass through Malé on their way to all corners of the Maldives. Most of them end up in the ocean. Local fishermen have reported a shocking amount of plastic bottle caps in yellow-fin tuna and unfortunately, the toxins associated with plastics travel through the fish up the food chain until they end up on the plates of Maldivians and tourists alike.
How waste is being targeted
There are many efforts underway to replace plastic bottles with glass ones. Resorts have the huge advantage of using their facilities to install desalination plants which turn seawater into drinking water and can be filled into reusable glass bottles right on site. This set-up is becoming increasingly more popular in Maldivian resorts. The resort itself saves money in avoiding shipping to and from Malé, there is always a supply right on the island, and it helps to push the sustainability image of a resort (which is becoming increasingly more important for tourists when choosing their holiday destinations). How important monetary incentives are, becomes clear when you realise that instead of switching to this more sustainable and in the long-run cheaper alternative, resorts have been sticking to single-use plastic bottles for years. You might wonder why that is the case even though desalination plants have been successfully implemented in various destinations for over a decade now. The answer is equally as simple as it is frustrating: the owners of big resorts in the Maldives have also major shares in the mineral water trade in the Maldives which is – you’ve guessed right – entirely filled into plastic bottles.(7)
Being optimistic regarding the elimination of single-use plastics within the next couple of years, the question of what happens with other waste products remains. On resort islands, most garbage gets sorted before being processed further. Wet garbage usually gets stored at low temperatures to avoid it starting to smell. This eats up a lot of electricity which is usually generated by diesel generators. What happens to the waste afterwards is dependent on the resort; they either burn it, compost it, or – more likely - dump it in the ocean at night far enough away from the island so it does not get washed up on their own beaches again. There is a grey number of non-degradable waste mixed into this dumped garbage as not all wet waste is getting sorted properly and plastic items might be overseen. There are currently no monitoring or reporting measures in place that control whether this dumped trash does not contain any plastics or polystyrene foam which is often used to transport fruit and vegetables.
Some resorts shred their plastic waste into smaller pieces to at least reduce the volume before it gets sent to Thilafushi. At Thilafushi, more than 400 tons of garbage arrive each day; most of it gets burned, which is not great for the atmosphere and even worse for the surrounding environment.(8) With the next rain shower the chemicals remaining from the burnt residue, will sink into the little groundwater or flow straight into the ocean and onto the coral reef upsetting that fragile balance and possibly destroying a vital ecosystem. The toxic chemicals from burnt plastics end up in coconuts, fruits and vegetables that grow on the islands and ending – once again – on our plates, negatively affecting our health.
Shifting Mindsets
The people of the Maldives have realised how pressing the problem of waste is and are ready to mitigate the issue as quickly as possible. A global initiative called Parley for the Oceans(9) has been doing amazing work over the past years in the Maldives to tackle the problem of improper waste management. With a combined approach of education, government collaboration and policy work, as well as hands-on garbage removal they have achieved a lot already. Solely funded by donations this organisation has removed over 1,400 tons of plastic from the Maldives.(10) Only certain types of plastics can be used for recycling which is why in their island clean-ups they must neglect other waste and focus on the recyclable PET bottles for now.
Parley focuses their efforts on local communities. Education is key, and by visiting schools in far-fetched parts of the country and telling them about the disadvantages of waste on beaches and in the ocean, they are hoping to grasp the issue by the root. Raising a generation that is aware of the impacts that plastic pollution has on their livelihoods is crucial for approaching this environmental issue. In these awareness-raising and educational outings it is furthermore shared to students, teachers, and parents that tourists are bringing a lot of money into the country. By helping keep beaches and reefs clean, more income and job opportunities can be generated since pristine beaches and coastal areas are a main driver for tourism. Tourists also play a crucial part in the improvement of waste management. It is estimated that each tourist generates roughly 3,5kg (11) of waste each day! In a nation where logistics are laborious and costly this is an amount that is way too high.
As a keen traveller myself, I was always under the impression that by leaving leftover shampoo, shower gel, etc. I would do the hotel staff a favour. In fact, this is one of the worst things we as travellers can do. It is much better to take everything back home with you where it can be sorted and recycled in a more sustainable manner than leaving it behind in the Maldives. The amount of single-use plastic brought in and left by tourists is immense. Unfortunately, it does not just stop at shampoo bottles: it has become frustratingly popular to take pictures for social media on plastic floats in all shapes and colours (flamingos, unicorns, pineapples, donuts, pizza slices, and even llamas). After having the perfect Instagram shot taken these floats are no longer of use. Often, they get blown away into the sea where they can cause severe harm to marine life. Or, if they remain with their owners for the whole stay, they will be left behind in the hotel room leaving an island nation with no proper waste management to deal with a pink plastic flamingo that travelled all around the globe to end up in a landfill contributing to habitat loss, air pollution, and increasingly more marine debris.
For your next journey, think twice about what you really need to bring on your vacation and what can stay at home. Empty plastic bottles should end up in the waste bins of the countries they originated from. Before choosing a resort for your vacation check on their website what they do in terms of waste management - it can also be worth sending them a direct message if you cannot find clear answers online. Sustainability credentials such as the Travelife for Tour Operators certification are furthermore a good indicator for assessing whether a hotel is doing their part of mitigating the growing issue of marine debris.
Sources:
1. Ministry of Tourism Maldives; https://www.tourism.gov.mv/
2. Ministry of Tourism Maldives; https://www.tourism.gov.mv/
3. “How The Maldives Is Combating Waste Management | NBC News NOW”;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8J-QMQOrtk
4. “Maldives: Fighting back the tides of trash | DW Documentary“; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_jvCwNVp68
5. Maldives: Fighting back the tides of trash | DW Documentary“;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_jvCwNVp68
6. WAMCO Maldives; https://www.wamco.com.mv/
7. “Maldives: Fighting back the tides of trash | DW Documentary“;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_jvCwNVp68
8. “Maldives: Fighting back the tides of trash | DW Documentary“;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_jvCwNVp68
9. Parley Maldives; https://www.maldives.parley.tv/
10. Parley Maldives; https://www.maldives.parley.tv/
11. “How The Maldives Is Combating Waste Management | NBC News NOW”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8J-QMQOrtk
Are you a tourism operator or coastal hotel wanting to become more sustainable? Sea Going Green can help you calculate and lower your footprint to put you on your way to a greener future.