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An Analysis of the Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Solid Waste Management Scenarios for the Small Island Developing State of Mauritius from a Life Cycle Sustainability Perspective

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Noushra Amode at University of Mauritius
Noushra Amode
Prakash Deenapanray at Université des Mascareignes
Prakash Deenapanray
Pratima Khadoo at University of Mauritius
Pratima Khadoo
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Abstract and Figures

The waste sector is the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Mauritius owing to landfilling. Hence, the Mauritian Government has decided to devise strategies to reduce landfilling. However, the solid waste management strategies of the Mauritian Government have been criticized for lacking evidence-based analysis with respect to sustainability. Thus, the present study attempted to bridge this science-policy gap by evaluating the sustainability level of a solid waste action plan proposed by the Mauritian Government (Scenario 1: 27% landfilling, 22% recycling, 31% composting/anaerobic digestion (AD) (out of the 31%, 50% organic waste for composting and 50% for AD), and 20% waste-to-energy (mass incineration)) and by comparing it to the business-as-usual (BAU) practice (95% landfilling, 5% recycling) and two alternative scenarios (Scenario 2: the same as Scenario 1 but substituting mass incineration with refuse-derived fuel and Scenario 3: the same as Scenario 1 but changing the amount of organic waste for AD and composting to 90% and 10% respectively). A Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment approach was undertaken by applying the ISO 14040 guidelines to evaluate environmental impacts in terms of global warming potential (GWP), economic impacts in terms of net present value (NPV), and social impacts in terms of number of employment generated. The impacts were thereafter combined using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The results demonstrated that Scenario 3 was the most sustainable, followed by Scenario 1, Scenario 2, and the BAU. The study also revealed that Scenario 1 was more sustainable than the BAU, hence providing an evidence-based support for the government’s action plan, which might kick-start its implementation in Mauritius. Nonetheless, Scenario 3 can be considered an improvement for Scenario 1.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Materials Circular Economy (2024) 6:60
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42824-024-00153-6
ORIGINAL PAPER
An Analysis oftheClimate Change Mitigation Potential ofSolid
Waste Management Scenarios fortheSmall Island Developing State
ofMauritius fromaLife Cycle Sustainability Perspective
NoushraShamreenAmode1 · PrakashN.K.Deenapanray2,3· PratimaKhadoo1
Received: 30 April 2024 / Revised: 22 September 2024 / Accepted: 25 September 2024 / Published online: 25 October 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024
Abstract
The waste sector is the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Mauritius owing to landfilling. Hence, the
Mauritian Government has decided to devise strategies to reduce landfilling. However, the solid waste management strategies
of the Mauritian Government have been criticized for lacking evidence-based analysis with respect to sustainability. Thus,
the present study attempted to bridge this science-policy gap by evaluating the sustainability level of a solid waste action plan
proposed by the Mauritian Government (Scenario 1: 27% landfilling, 22% recycling, 31% composting/anaerobic digestion
(AD) (out of the 31%, 50% organic waste for composting and 50% for AD), and 20% waste-to-energy (mass incineration))
and by comparing it to the business-as-usual (BAU) practice (95% landfilling, 5% recycling) and two alternative scenarios
(Scenario 2: the same as Scenario 1 but substituting mass incineration with refuse-derived fuel and Scenario 3: the same as
Scenario 1 but changing the amount of organic waste for AD and composting to 90% and 10% respectively). A Life Cycle
Sustainability Assessment approach was undertaken by applying the ISO 14040 guidelines to evaluate environmental impacts
in terms of global warming potential (GWP), economic impacts in terms of net present value (NPV), and social impacts in
terms of number of employment generated. The impacts were thereafter combined using the Analytical Hierarchy Process.
The results demonstrated that Scenario 3 was the most sustainable, followed by Scenario 1, Scenario 2, and the BAU. The
study also revealed that Scenario 1 was more sustainable than the BAU, hence providing an evidence-based support for the
government’s action plan, which might kick-start its implementation in Mauritius. Nonetheless, Scenario 3 can be considered
an improvement for Scenario 1.
Keywords Sustainable waste management· Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment· Analytical Hierarchy Process· Small
Island Developing State
Introduction
Mauritius is an island of volcanic origin located at 57° 30′
E and 20° 20′ S (Paul etal.,2005) and classified as a Small
Island Developing State (SIDS) by the United Nations
(2022). Mauritius has the highest population density amongst
the African countries (Bowman 2023) with the number of
inhabitants of the island of Mauritius amounting to 1,216,139
(Statistics Mauritius 2023a) for a terrestrial area of 1865
km2 (UNDP 2020). The solid waste generated in Mauritius,
which is about 1.12kg per capita per day (Statistics Mauritius
2021a), is higher than the global average of 0.74kg per capita
per day (World Bank 2018), and from 1998 to 2020, Mauri-
tius has experienced an increase of more than 900% in its per
capita waste generation (Amode etal.,2023). For a develop-
ing country like Mauritius, the high population density and
competition between land utilization make the management
of the increasing amounts of solid waste an alarming issue.
Presently, landfilling with partial landfill gas recovery
to generate electricity is the main method being employed
in the island to manage MSW. About 501,167 t of waste,
which represents 95% of the total waste generated, is
* Noushra Shamreen Amode
noushra.amode1@umail.uom.ac.mu
1 Department ofChemical andEnvironmental Engineering,
University ofMauritius, RéduitMoka, Mauritius
2 Sustainability andClimate Change Programme, Université
Des Mascareignes, Roches Brunes, RoseHill, Mauritius
3 ELIA–Ecological Living In Action, 74 Société La Flèche,
LaGaulette, Mauritius
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