Every year, 10 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly affected by this increasing amount of marine litter. In 2019, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) launched the Plastic Waste Free Islands (PWFI) project. The program is running for three years and incorporates six islands in the Caribbean and Pacific: Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, and Grenada. The aim of this project is to promote their circular economy and to demonstrate effective solutions to addressing plastic leakage.
Since December of last year, PEM is leading the final evaluation of the project with the specific objective of assessing the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impacts, and sustainability of the project to address plastic pollution in the targeted islands. Four out of the six target islands were visited during a field mission.