Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, H: Environment & Earth Science, Volume 23 Issue 1

Holistic Approach to Tackle (Micro) Plastic Pollution: The Case of Mauritius Kishore Boodhoo Abstract- There has been a drastic increase in the production and use of plastics today. Society has benefitted largely from the advent of plastics. They play a major role in our economic and social development encompassing every sector from health and food preservation, through to transportation and enhancing the digital age. Plastics have a life expectancy of many years before getting degraded or fragmented in to microplastics or nano-plastics which are easily ingested by aquatic species and eventually end-up in humans. The marine ecosystems and health of human population are severely impacted upon due to release of harmful chemicals from the latter. Moreover, since the movement of plastic wastes has no boundaries, plastic pollution is considered to a major threat to our planet. Countries around the world are having recourse to policy measures and economic instruments to counteract plastic pollution. Likewise, the Republic of Mauritius, with the main island in the south-west of the Indian Ocean, is not spared from the adverse effects of plastic pollution. In this paper, a full description of all the avenues required to beat plastic pollution, notably circular economy, recycling technologies available, life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Governance of plastic waste (instruments) has been achieved. The current status of Mauritius in this fight against plastic waste and the implementation of these measures have also been discussed. Keywords: circular economy, recycling technologies, life cycle assessment, governance of plastic waste, mauritius I. I ntroduction and B ackground lastic is cheap, lightweight, strong, pliable, and long-lasting contributing to its widespread use around the globe. In 2018, 359 million tonnes of plastic were manufactured worldwide (Plastics Europe, 2019) which are intended to be used as disposable/single use products and packaging; hence they are quickly discarded (Thompson et al., 2009). Plastic waste can remain in the environment for decades. It is also easily transported by wind and water due to its low density, complicating plastic waste management. Till now, recycling of plastics has been very insignificant (< 10%) compared to those produced (Geyer et al., 2017). Most of the plastic wastes (79 %) end up in landfills or into the oceans, whereas, the remaining ones are incinerated (12%) (Geyer et al. , 2017). In addition, most plastics cannot be recycled Author: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius. e-mail: kishore.boodhoo@uom.ac.mu several times, resulting in the down cycling rather than recycling of plastics to come up with the same type of product again. On a yearly basis, it is estimated that 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic wastes enter the oceans, being mismanaged (Jambeck et al., 2015). Other inland sources and sea sources account for another 75,000 to 1.1 million tonnes and 0.3 to 3.25 million tonnes of plastic waste, respectively (Sherrington et al., 2016). Land-based sources comprise the recreational activities along coastlines, littering by the population, industry, ports and mismanaged landfills and dumps situated close to the coast, sewage overflows, accidental loss and extreme events. Ocean-based sources of marine litter are related to commercial/recreational fishing, research and military vessels as well as offshore installations such as platforms and aquaculture sites. The other parameters which are equally important to evaluate the amount and types of plastic wastes entering the marine environment are the ocean current patterns, climate and tides, the vicinity where human activities are taking place. Eventually, all these plastic wastes end up in gyres such as the ‘Great Pacific garbage patch’ (Ryan et al., 2009). Ultraviolet (UV) radiation plays a key role in plastic degradation, and because UV light is absorbed rapidly by water, plastics generally take much longer to degrade at sea than on land (Andrady et al. ,2003). However, the rate of degradation depends on the ambient temperature as well as polymer type, additives and fillers (Andrady et al. , 2003). Plastic wastes break down into micro- and nano-plastic pieces, causing severe disruption in marine ecosystems and coastal communities. It also has an adverse impact on ocean health, food safety and quality, coastal tourism, and contributes to climate change. It has been reported that there are 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans, with a total mass of 250,000 tonnes (Eriksen et al., 2014). From this sttudy the composition of marine plastic consist of 75.4% macro-plastic, 11.4% mesoplastic, 10.6% large micro-plastics (1.01-4.75 mm) and 2.6% small microplastics (0.33–1.00 mm). The estimate by Eriksen et al. , (2014) of 35,540 tonnes of microplastics globally corroborates with a similar estimate for microplastics by Cozar et al., (2014) of between 7,000 and 35,000 metric tonnes. When ingested, microplastics could transfer persist and organic pollutants (POPs) to marine organisms, resulting in the subsequent bioaccumulation and P 1 Year 2023 2 © 2023 Global Journals Global Journal of Science Frontier Research Volume XXIII Issue ersion I VI ( H )