Environmental statement for the plastic manufacturing facility in Kaafu Thilafushi

Abstract

Incorporated as Lotus Private Limited in 1998; Apollo Holdings Private Limited (since 1999) is a well established trading company in the Maldives. Transportation and supplying building construction materials and machineries are core businesses of the company. The Plastic bag manufacturing factory of Apollo Holdings Private Limited is located on a reclaimed island on the southern periphery of North Male’ Atoll, called Thilafushi. Thilafushi was a lagoon called Thilafalhu, with a length of about 7 km and a width of 200 meters at the shallowest part, before it was started to reclaim in December of 1991. The company’s plastic bag and container manufacturing facility in Thilafushi manufacture supply and deliver various sizes of plastic bags and containers. The product range includes shopping bags, garbage bags and other types of polythene bags in accordance with the customer demand. Since the project is located in a reclaimed land, away from the coast there is no terrestrial or marine flora or fauna associated within or in close proximity of the project. However, the island in general has got typical vegetation cover found elsewhere in Maldives. Due to the nature of the project, there is no direct negative impact to the environment. However, the project has many positive impacts to the environment. The plastic bag and container manufacturing project is an ongoing project. Therefore, the no development option is not relevant here. The company has already invested in state of the art equipments and has successfully captured a fair share of the market. However, a feasible alternative is to use biodegradable material in the manufacturing of the plastic bags. This will require the government to provide an enabling environment. Under the extended producer responsibility, the company has already invested on a full fledge recycling facility. The factory welcomes any HDPE and LLDPE waste, and even pays for it. All the HDPE and LLDPE waste generated from all the Apollo Empire of activities are collected and recycled. The company is willing and committed to convert all its activities to cater manufacturing biodegradable plastic bags. However, the government should provide the support, in terms of regulation (allowed for healthy competition), financial assistance and an enabling environment or waste management culture. As the project does not have any negative impact on the environment the monitoring protocol gives attention to monitor the indicators that can be later used to assess the company’s contribution to the secondary impacts on the environment from the plastic bags.