Ramass plastik… fer li vinn artistik… fer nou tizil vinn manifik

(Pick up plastic, make it into something artistic and help keep our island beautiful)

The purpose

The purpose of this project is to empower and educate citizens to take collective action towards creation of zero waste society. Big part of such strategies is the integration of Sustainable Island Living practices into our everyday lives to change our consumption patterns and reduce, reuse and recycle the resources we use.

Integrative approach to achieving the project’s purpose

The project uses an integrative approach for raising the awareness of all different stakeholders who share a responsibility in the ‘care for our natural environment’ (in this case Ile aux Benitier). This project is thus more than just a clean-up, as it also includes the follow up actions:

• Creatively demonstrating the reuse practice by bringing together local and international artists into creating art from waste
• Exhibiting the art piece for education purposes (see move details below)
• Bringing together the different stakeholders into a Dialogue for the continued collaboration and
  implementation.

The Benitier Island Project – Weekend clean up, the Art exhibition and Global Dialogues

The weekend clean up of Bénitiers Island took place on 29th & 30th September 2012 and brought together around 200 volunteers during both days. The clean up consisted of two main operations: the picking up of rubbish in teams according to colour zones provided (as to ensure the entire island got cleaned) and the sorting of the waste into different categories (see table below). The operation of sorting fulfilled a twofold purpose – separation of the material that can be re-purposed into art as well as demonstrating and providing a context within which participants could  ‘learn by doing’ about all the different types of waste. In total around 450 bags were collected. The majority of the waste was then transported over to the Tamarin Arts Centre, where it is now being used for the making of art from waste.

The purpose of bringing art into this project is to educate the public in a fun and interactive way about the effects our actions have on the natural environment (in this case marine) and to influence people’s consumer behaviour through art’s focus on the reuse concept by showing how waste can be turned into a resource (through production of decor items like jewellery, mosaics and furniture). On 9^th December 2012, public will be invited to an Open Day to see work in progress. The exhibition is planned for February/March 2013 at Tamarin Arts Centre as well as La Gaulette Embarcadere since it is a regular pick-up point for the Island. We are also exploring the possibility of auctioning off some of the pieces as to create the funds to feed back into the project.

To support follow-up and implementation the ‘Global Dialogues’ session will take place on 8^th December 2012. Global Dialogues is a multi-stakeholder engagement process which in this case will bring together the members and representatives of the Benitier Island lease owners, local community, local and national authorities, tour operators, hotel management, and other invested stake-holders, for the purpose of collaborative care – taking actions of Benitier Island in a sustainable way.

People & Organisations involved

This project has been organised by One Future One Planet Mauritius and collaborators (see below) and is funded by the European Union. The collaborating organisations in the project are: Mauritius Marine Conservation Society (MMCS), Mission Verte, Rotaract club, Eco-Raisers, Partage, Black River Art society, Tamarin Art Centre and The Monitors of Benitier Island (MOBI). ELIA-Ecological Living In Action (www.ecolivinginaction.com) is the official coordinator for the One Future One Planet Mauritius project. The project is also supported by Clean Up The World network and Rainmedia.