Collect and recovery of plastic waste in Cape Verde

SCE is currently carrying out an expertise on behalf of the NGO Biosfera about plastic waste on the islands of Santa Luzia and São Vicente in Cape Verde.

The 2 main objectives of this survey are to characterise and quantify of the marine plastic waste present on the island of Santa Luzia Island (uninhabited), a world-class breeding ground for the reproduction of loggerhead turtles (an endangered species).

In addition, the project team is also conducting a second mission, to define a plastic waste recovery plan for the island of Sao Vicente. It includes plastic waste from the population, economic activities and the sea.

Today, the island of Sao Vicente has no recovery structure. The waste is sent to an open landfill where precarious populations live. They recover organic matter for animals, and burn other waste in order to recover the metals. These practices have an impact on the environment (greenhouse gases) and on the population' health.

To carry out this assessment, SCE has developed a methodology for sampling, collecting, characterising and quantifying waste stranded on the beach. This methodology was used to define the potential for recycling the plastic waste present.
Trough on-site missions, SCE project team was able to mobilise stakeholders such as municipality, embassy, ministry of the Economy of the Sea, hotels and restaurants, industrials, construction companies, retailers, etc. 
This mobilisation demonstrates a strong awareness of the population, which can very quickly measure the impacts of this pollution, given the island context, both in terms of the living environment, biodiversity, and tourist activity (25% of GDP).
Some results of the characterisation campaign from May to June 2021 on Santa Luzia :

• 9,731 objects characterised
• 84% are plastic objects
• from 25 different countries
• fishing nets represent 55% of the mass of waste characterised