A government official confirmed that redeem centres for aluminium cans and glass bottles in the Seychelles will be back in operation a little later than usual on March 20.

There are six centres in the Seychelles – Four are on Mahe, the main island, and one each on Praslin and La Digue.

The principal secretary in the Department of Environment, Denis Matatiken, told reporters that last year, the environmental authorities “decided to close the exchange period in November rather than the habitual December due to challenges that were beyond our control.”

These centres are the only consistent points of collection for PET and aluminium cans and glass bottles as there are no specific services for the collection in the island nation.

Matatiken said: “Last year there were shipping lines that were refusing to take the plastic bottles despite the plastics being shredded at the redeem centres.

“We helped the recycler send around 10 shipping containers of PET bottles to Vietnam, and we are still in negotiations to help them export some more.

“There are shipping companies that have made these declarations on the international scene that they will no longer be accepting empty PET bottles. Which is why, we as a country will have to re-think our position where they are concerned – with a lot of consultations with those concerned.”

From March 20, people will be able to bring in their cans and glass bottles for recycling.

In a bid to encourage recycling and minimise the amount of waste in the Seychelles’ landfills, a deposit of $0.10, or SCR2, has been applied to glass bottles of alcoholic beverages entering the country since January 2021.