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Mauritius: A Generation Of Entrepreneurs Committed To A Plastic-free Future
From April 14 to 26, 2025, the Plastic Odyssey laboratory vessel made a stopover at Port-Louis, marking the 32ᵉ leg of its global expedition against plastic pollution. This stopover in Mauritius is part of the ExPLOI project (Expedition Plastique Océan Indien), a scientific and civic mission carried out in partnership with the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and the IRD, with the support of the AFD and the FFEM.
25ᵉ edition of the OnBoard Laboratory – Port-Louis, April 2025
A particularly alarming environmental context: 75,000 tonnes of plastic waste are buried every year in Mauritius, of which barely 4% is recycled. A reality that threatens the lagoons and marine biodiversity of this emblematic Indian Ocean island.
It was in this context that the 25ᵉ incubation session on board was organized, bringing together a new class of Mauritian entrepreneurs with innovative projects in the recycling field. Over three days, participants benefited from an intensive program combining theoretical input, discovery of international initiatives and practical workshops in the on-board workshop.
Meet the Entrepreneurs
Nitish Purbhoonauth – Yellowbox Company Limited
After a solid experience in the PET bottling industry with a major company in Madagascar, Nitish Purbhoonauth returned to Mauritius with the desire to put his skills to work for the environment. Through Yellowbox, he began to specialize in the collection and crushing of PET bottles, mainly for export.
Today, its ambition is to develop local value-adding solutions, in order to reduce dependence on export channels and create value directly in Mauritius.
Jacques Ollivier Mineur – Rogers Hospitality
Director of the Waste Management Division at Rogers Hospitality, Jacques Ollivier Mineur plays a central role in the deployment of a new waste management strategy in the south of Mauritius. He will be the technical manager of an ambitious project launched in partnership with Plastic Odyssey and Rogers Group: the island’s very first recycling microfactory, to be inaugurated on April 25, 2025 at the foot of the Plastic Odyssey ship in Port-Louis.
Installed in a container and renovated by Velogic, this decentralized unit will be operated in Bel Ombre by a team of 4 people. Capable of processing up to 500 tonnes of plastic waste a year, it aims to reduce the proportion of waste sent to landfill at Mare Chicose by 80%.
The project is based on an integrated approach to sorting and local recycling:
- On-site sorting garbage cans,
- Organic waste redirected to pig farmers,
- Returnable glass collected by the Plankton association,
- Green waste handled by Sealife,
- Solidarity store for the resale of reused or recycled items.
The aim is clear: to compensate for the lack of recycling facilities in the south of the island by creating a local massification model that is operational, economical and inspiring.
Stephanie Jacquin – We-Recycle
Active in waste collection in Mauritius, the NGO We-Recycle is now looking to expand its model to include plastic recovery activities. The aim is to transform the waste collected into useful materials or objects, in order to create a circular and sustainable model.
Bryan Roderyck Ramnaiken – Tropical Essence
With his agro-ecology micro-enterprise, Bryan is developing an original project for recycled plastic jewelry. By combining craftsmanship and recycling, he aims to raise awareness of plastic pollution while creating local aesthetic and economic value.
Bruno Shivedutt Rughoobur
A serial entrepreneur, Bruno is working on the design of recycled plastic hollow bricks for the construction industry. Its aim: to offer an alternative to traditional materials, while recycling waste on a large scale.
Paul Olsen – New Life Recycling Ltd
A committed cleanup activist for 25 years, Paul founded BelleVerte, a pioneering beach and river collection company in Mauritius. He has designed pick-up tools adapted to difficult terrain.
After years of activism, he realized the limits of the associative model and founded New Life Recycling Ltd, a company dedicated to transforming recycled plastic into sheets for furniture manufacture.
In collaboration with Precious Plastic Mauritius, it is experimenting with a complete chain: cleanup, grinding, manual extrusion, and now a recently installed 1m x 1m heated press. It is also working with Plastinax to recover their industrial purges, currently in the test phase.
Learning, experimenting, transmitting
During the three days on board, the entrepreneurs :
- Discovered over 150 Plastic Odyssey recycling projects around the world,
- Review the theoretical foundations of recycling (plastics typology, value chains, product design),
- Participated in a hands-on session in the on-board workshop: grinding, extrusion and plastic joinery, giving rise to a sorting garbage can made from recycled profiles, left on site.
From theory to concrete action
The program enabled participants to get to grips with the fundamentals of plastic recycling, exploring polymer types, technologies available on a small scale, and possible uses for local applications.
In addition to the presentations, the group met in the workshop to assemble a sorting bin made of recycled plastic sections, manufactured on site from waste collected and extruded on board. This bin will remain in Maurice as a symbol of the move to action.
A network building for the future
On a local scale, the incubated entrepreneurs had the opportunity to join the historic players in the local plastics and recycling industry for lunch on board:
- Jovani Gopal of DKD Plastic Recycling, which already recycles 1,200T of plastic waste annually into pipes.
- GĂ©rard Li of EN Packaging, which recycles 600T of plastic annually to make plastic bags and boards.
- Eric Corson of PIM Recycling, a major player in the island’s plastics industry, which incorporates 200T of recycled plastic into its production.
This Mauritian class now also joins the international network of Onboard Lab alumni, with over 200 entrepreneurs worldwide. The link has been forged, and we hope that upcoming calls for projects in the region will help to turn these promising initiatives into reality.
Mauritius now has new faces to drive the plastic transition, and this nascent momentum is set to grow.
OnBoard Laboratory, our incubation program for recycling entrepreneurs
At each stopover on the expedition, the Plastic Odyssey vessel welcomes on board several local recycling entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and develop concrete solutions to combat plastic pollution.