Wild Dumping: A Dirty Habit, A Dirty System

In Mauritius, the litter strewn across our roads is not merely a matter of incivility. With failing infrastructure and the illusion of constant cleaning, it is a whole system that is contributing to our own suffocation today.

A plastic bag discarded by the roadside. Bulky items thrown into vacant lots. A gutter turned into a dump. In Mauritius, these actions occur daily, driven by a stubborn belief: "Someone else will clean up after us."

This illusion is not just a civic issue. It reveals the flaws of an entire system. The numbers speak for themselves: Mare-Chicose received less than 450,000 tons of waste in 2015. By 2024-2025, that figure is expected to reach around 540,000 tons, nearly 100,000 tons more in ten years. The official recycling rate? A mere 4%, likely underestimated as the amounts processed by private players – Sealife Organic (5,000 tons), Palette World (6,000 to 7,000 tons), WeCycle (9,000 tons), among others – are not always accounted for.

"We are in a frenzy of overconsumption, leading to a much larger waste production than before. But we must realize that this waste has to go somewhere," warns Stephanie Jacquin, Manager of We-Recycle. For her, "the lack of space in Mauritius may lead us, sooner or later, to be buried under our own waste."

Why this casual attitude? Grégory Martin, director of Mautopia, an agency assisting Mauritius and Rodrigues in their ecological transition, points out that the island is continuously cleaned. "In public spaces and tourist sites, cleaning is constant. No matter what happens, someone always ends up sweeping. This cleanliness, which is 'costly for the state,' conveys a misleading idea: that waste is magical. Thrown on a beach, it seems to disappear a few hours or days later."

This mirage fosters incivility. Everyone thinks that the waste will eventually be picked up. "Of course, it is essential to continue cleaning because the country's image depends on it. But if we only focus on picking up, we are not instilling good habits in the population," he clarifies.