News

Circular EconomyJuly 9, 2026

How Mayotte Turned Discarded Tires into a Cultural Tradition

In Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique, a tire race tells the story of a world struggling with its waste. On the roads of Mayotte, an abandoned tire is never just an object. It is a piece of rubber that has reached the end of its life in a place where no system exists to take it back. A silent witness to the difficulties faced by island territories that must handle waste they did not produce, yet are forced to manage. In 1984, a physical education teacher, Jack Passe, decided to turn this reality into something positive. Drawing from a traditional Mahoran game in which children roll a tire using two sticks, he created the island's first "tire race". What began as a playful school activity soon became a cultural and athletic tradition, showing how local ingenuity can flourish where industrial solutions remain absent. The race demonstrates how communities can reclaim a problem and turn it into a moment of collective energy. Every tire recovered for training or competition is one less tire abandoned in the environment. But beyond the creativity hides a far more complex challenge underpinning the island's daily reality. Despite continuous efforts, Mayotte still faces structural constraints in managing used tires. Storage capacity is limited. Exporting waste for treatment is expensive in a territory where all recycling must happen elsewhere. Collection schedules vary across municipalities, and in certain areas, tires continue to appear in informal dumps. When filled with rainwater, they become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and contribute to the spread of disease. When burned, they release toxic smoke that contaminates soils and air. The tire race is a creative and symbolic response, but it does not resolve the underlying issue. Instead, it highlights a broader reality: island territories must manage objects designed and produced elsewhere, without meaningful support from the companies responsible for putting these products on the market.

Circular EconomyJuly 2, 2026

Reusable-Cup Subscription Service to Launch on Cayman

A new, deliberately not overly pretty, reusable cup is being launched in Cayman by a company that says it's combining a revenue-maker with an approach that may reduce the number of disposable containers ending up in the landfill. The ONECUP will be the first reusable cup subscription service for bars, restaurants, events and hotels in Cayman, says James Dartnall, founder of Island Cup Co, which produces the cups. A long-time volunteer in beach clean-ups and with the Department of Environment, Dartnall said he hopes the ONECUP will help cut down on the use of throwaway plastic cups. The kernel of the idea of developing the cups began during a one-and-a-half-year trip, from London, England, to Cape Town, South Africa, with his wife, where they decided to try to see if they could live without plastic during their journey. Later, at a concert in Washington, DC, he came across reusable cups. "I started researching the company [that made those cups] and other companies," he said, noting that they are becoming more commonly used at large events, like music festivals and concerts. He started to envision Cayman, with its daily influx of tourists and lively social scene, "as if every day is almost like a … very big event, and all of our hospitality vendors are operating within a small ecosystem, which they are. And then, is there a way of having a single drink cup that they all share, and they're all responsible for?" He says the ONECUP can replace not just single-use plastic glasses, but also reusable acrylic cups "because acrylic, they're end-of-chain. When acrylics get cracked or milky, they get thrown away, they can't be recycled." The plan for ONECUPs that come to the end of their use is to recycle them into plastic furniture. Once they get damaged or cracked and deemed unusable anymore, they would be shredded, melted and remolded into furniture, like benches, which, Dartnall hopes, the government will purchase and install as public fixtures.

Filter by Core Theme

The New Labour Agreement that Sustains Sustainability in the South of Gran Canaria

Tuvalu Launches its First Waste Plastic-to-Fuel Project

How Mayotte Turned Discarded Tires into a Cultural Tradition

Reusable-Cup Subscription Service to Launch on Cayman

Why Sustainable Alternatives to Plastic Are Struggling to Compete

Transforming Hazardous Waste into a Circular Economy in the Caribbean

Pilot projects aim to break Indonesia’s habit of burning household waste

A model for the circular economy: this is how Gran Canaria overcomes the challenge of insularity in managing its waste

Carrying African islands to the world stage: Inside the Ocean Hackathon Finals 2025