Completely going against the 46th section of the original bill which strongly prohibited the import of any type of waste in the Maldives, the new amendment appears to allow the import of waste to be managed in the Maldives for ‘financial’ gains.
Thilafushi Island - Source: President's Office
Maldives has been working towards achieving environmental sustainability over the last few years. As a country which faces the growing threats of climate change as pollution and sea level rising become more significant issues by the day, it is countries like the Maldives that have to take the first measures as they will face the negative effects of these outcomes. While other countries definitely pose a more significant threat to the global environment, smaller countries are looking at the dire consequences of a destroyed ecosystem in the near future.
Towards a more sustainable future
One of the biggest steps that were taken by the Maldives towards developing a more sustainable future for the country was taken in 2019 as the President announced the plans to ban single-use plastic by 2023.
“We are seeking to completely phase out our usage of single-use plastic by the year 2023. This will be one of the most far-reaching and ambitious plastics phase-out plans of any nation on Earth,”
This meant that over the years, the import of single-use plastic would be completely banned and slowly phase out the usage of products which include single-use plastics over the years. While the announcement was made in 2019, it took another 2 years for the measures to be properly implemented and by 2021 items including drinking straws; plates, cutleries and stirrers; Styrofoam lunch boxes; 30×30 cm carrier bags; betel nuts in plastic wrapping; below 250ml coffee cups; cotton wool buds; 50 ml and smaller toiletry bottles; and, below 500ml PET beverage bottles were banned in the Maldives.
And then in 2022, carrier bags below 50-micron thickness; 50-200 ml toiletry bottles; and, below one-litre PET beverage bottles were also banned from being imported.
And while the country should have taken these measures a long time back, it felt like for the first time the Maldives was moving towards a better and greener future. As a country whose economy runs on the back of the tourism industry, the country is also a mass producer of waste that is mostly un-managed.
According to the Maldives Ocean Plastic Alliance (MOPA), the Maldives produces 43,134 tonnes of plastic waste, which is 12 percent of the total waste produced in the Maldives annually. As Maldivian households heavily depend on products that use plastic waste such as imported water cases as well as plastic bags that are given at stores to carry goods, with no proper waste management policy in place it is no surprise that 66 percent of all waste produced are discarded with no proper policies in place, which is high even by world standards.
Taking a complete 180 – where it’s all going wrong
In order to implement proper waste management in place in the Maldives, in January 2022 waste segregation was introduced by the Government of the Maldives. However, the move towards waste segregation was a failure for the most part as the public lacked the knowledge and guidance required to implement such a big policy in the Maldives. And as we near the end of 2022, the one week of waste management policy being thoroughly implemented feels like a reality that never really took place.
With such measures slowly being put into place, even with a large percentage of them failing, many were looking forward to the Maldives learning and accepting a greener future for the country. And while the country could fully adapt to such measures for a more sustainable future with the proper education and help, dreaming of having a green future is yet again starting to feel like just that – a dream.
Maldives appears to be taking a total 180 degree turn on their green policy as 2022 comes to an end. While the year started out with many promising initiatives towards a sustainable future, things seem to have gotten a bit complicated towards the end.
On November 2022 the Parliament of the Maldives passed the much-needed Waste Management Act (WMA) to help regulate the mismanaged and poorly regulated waste of the country, a last-minute amendment to section 44 of the Bill is getting much-needed attention among the Maldivian public. Completely going against the 46th section of the original Bill which strongly prohibited the import of any type of waste in the Maldives, the new amendment appears to allow the import of waste to be managed in the Maldives for ‘financial’ gains.
Concerns surrounding this amendment have been raised by Zero Waste Maldives, who are calling this new amendment an ill-intentioned change which could lead to the Maldives suffering the same consequences as other developing countries that are being subjected to what’s called a ‘global waste mountain’. This phenomenon started out after China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, leading to the export of plastic waste being diverted to other developing countries in Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia.
When developing countries, such as the Maldives, that do not have proper waste management measures in place allow the import of waste from other countries, doors are easily opened for illegal practices such as dumping or burning of plastic waste which can greatly harm those residing in the country as well as the nation's eco-system.
The specific section of the bill that highlighted the banning of importing waste was largely pushed by Zero Waste Maldives to be implemented, however, is clearly being ignored by the Maldivian Government as a whole. Being justified as a way to make money with the ‘waste to energy’ project being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), all parties involved are being held accountable by the public for largely ignoring the negative environmental implications for carrying out this project as well as changing the waste management bill.
While the Government is yet to change anything about this policy, the passing of such a policy would mean turning the Maldives into a literal dump– going against any of the measures that have been taken towards sustainability in the country to this day.
