Actions & Events
Seminar on the project
The Project started in early January 2023 and is due to be completed by end of December of 2023 (12 months). The Research Team has already initiated several activities, as outlined on this page.
Interactive Seminar for potential Direct Beneficiaries
Consultative Meetings with Stakeholders
A number of e-meetings as well as face to face meetings are being held with the different stakeholders, namely, corporate growers, individual growers and farmers’ associations, corporate users of single use plastics for packaging (from different sector of the economy such as food processing industry, textile, hospitality, transportation & logistics), plastic manufacturing companies in order to assess the type and amount of biomass's available locally, type of single use plastics that would need to be replaced on the short term (within one year), medium term (between one and three years) and on the long term (within three to seven years). Other type of cellulosic wastes such as textile cotton fabrics are also being investigated.
The main objective is to quantitatively evaluate the availability of raw materials which can be transformed into a refined material for the manufacture of secondary type packaging (non-food grade). Furthermore, the sectorial industry needs for the development of secondary and subsequently primary packaging will be properly assessed and prioritized.
In this context, the three mini-surveys (as shown below) have also been launched to capture quantitative data in the local context.
Visit to Potential Direct Beneficiaries
A number of visits were organized to interact with small cooperative associations, small & medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which are actively involved in daily activities; helping people within the local community in improving their livelihood through income generating tasks. The visits were also an opportunity to understand the scope of activities currently being done by each organization, to appreciate their existing infrastructure & facilities, and discuss with the responsible parties about the possibility of expanding their income generating activities through the reclaiming of green wastes via the implementation of the circular economy concept.
Direct Beneficiaries Seminars
The team has kicked start a series of focused group type seminar with organisations (such as NGOs, SMEs and Cooperative associations), which are potential direct beneficiaries to the UNDP GEF SGP funded project. Two such half-day seminars were organized on Wednesday 31st May and Friday 2nd June 2023 at the Conference Room, Textile Building, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius, Reduit. Thirty-eight (38) participants representing twenty-eight (28) organisations/enterprises/NGOs/SMEs attended the two half-day seminars.
The main objectives of the seminars were (1) to provide technical details about the UNDP GEF SGP funded project, particularly about the main equipment being designed & developed, and which would be leased (free of charge) to the selected direct beneficiaries for the manufacture of green functional packaging products, (2) to provide details of the application process as well as the conditions to be eligible to be considered as direct beneficiaries, (3) to provide a common platform to the participants to seek clarifications about the versatility of the designed machine, type of biomass which can be used, type of products which can be manufactured, etc., and (4) provide an opportunity for the participants to visit the laboratory facilities where natural banana fibres are extracted, and the prototypes of the different green packaging products are being developed and tested.