Mauritius, 15^th December 2020

Polyeco Mauritious, global leader in waste management, is delivering 21 kms of clean shoreline in the South East of Mauritius, as a result of the restoration operations around the Wakashio oil spill.  Whatismore, the clean-up operation completion is announced now, one month prior to its January 2021 due date. Polyeco, acting as contractor of Polygreen Group of Companies, has led this operation with the valuable contribution of men and women from Mauritious but also local volunteers, who worked tirelessly during the past four months. Thanks to their collective efforts, landmark sites such as Blue Bay, Pointe d’Esny, Preskil Hotel, Pointe Jerome, Mahebourg Waterfront, Petit Bel Air, Anse Fauvrelle, Riviere des Creoles, Pointe Brocus, Ile Aux Aigrettes, Ile Mouchoir Rouge and Ile aux Deux Cocos have gained its dazzling bright blue hues back. In total, the operations required a strong mobilization of approximately 300 local people and more than 2400 tonnes of hazardous waste and debris were removed from the different shorelines.

“I am immensely proud of the accomplishments of the teams for their effort and dedication to ensure that the cleaning activities are performed at the highest standards. Our goal was to make the shoreline more pristine and cleaner than ever. Today’s announcement is the testimony of what we can achieve with hard work and strong motivation. The hazardous waste collected on site has been directed to the Interim Storage Facility for Hazardous Waste located in La Chaumière, Bambous for proper repacking and safe storage prior to their exportation for final disposal. The ecological disaster generated by the Wakashio oil spill has raised awareness of the importance of environmental safety and it is indeed an important and incredible human story that we need to share with our grandchildren for years to come. During all this time, we have witnessed the strong sense of duty andpatriotism of all Mauritians involved, the willingness, resilience, and hope of all the people who were part of that task” said Kostas Chatzatoglou, Country Manager of Polyeco Mauritus.

Since the beginning of the operations, Polyeco has provided their expertise and know-how to identify and select the various techniques required for each type of shoreline and level of contamination of each site. In total, the team applied five types of techniques such as high pressure washing on man-made structures, wiping with absorbents and utilization of soft brushes on delicate surfaces, cutting of oiled vegetation and collection of seaweed in highly contaminated sites and flushing and flooding methods across the different sites. The Polyeco team managed to clean six different type of shorelines such as man-made structures, rip rap, rocky surfaces, muddy shores, sandy beaches, and mangrove shorelines which all required specific cleaning techniques.

Athanasios Polychronopoulos, CEO of Polygreen Group of Companies, said: “I am incredibly delighted to hear that our team has been highly effective in the clean-up operations. I visited Mauritius during this process and was also personally involved in the oil pumping operations in the North on the Sir Gaetan tug. Despite the challenges Mauritius faced this year, I feel that we are concluding the year with positive news.. We are pleased that we were able to create synergies between the Mauritian authorities, our teams and all people who came to work with us following the Wakashio oil spill. Polyeco’s duties and commitment does not stop there and we plan to have a longstanding relationship with Mauritius as we are committed to providing global expertise in hazardous waste management and sustainable solutions to the country.”