In Guadeloupe, creativity in the service of zero waste

This story by Olivia Losbar originally appeared on Global Voices on November 20, 2025.

Between citizen initiatives, artistic engagement, and public policies, Guadeloupe is reinventing itself to turn waste into a resource. From sewing workshops to sustainable festivals, the entire archipelago is mobilising for a more sustainable future.

According to the latest data published by ORDEC, Guadeloupe’s regional waste and circular economy observatory, in 2023, the country produced 346,720 tonnes of waste. A quarter of this was recovered; the remaining 60 percent was buried in two non-hazardous waste storage facilities. While waste production in the territory has remained stable since 2019, there is an urgent need to improve waste recovery channels.

When creation becomes ecological resistance

For some Guadeloupeans, the act of creating is also becoming an act of ecological resistance. Where some see nothing but scraps, artists and craftspeople have decided to transform waste into creative material. New hybrid spaces are emerging, giving a second life to materials that were destined for the dustbin, in a conscious process that is at once aesthetic, social and sustainable.

For instance, when you arrive at l’Admérane — a creative space located in the former refectory of Ilet Pérou in Capesterre-Belle-Eau — you’re immediately immersed in a creative universe of murals, upcycled furniture, rows of sewing machines and racks of clothes with original cuts and patterns.

“At l’Admérane, individuals bring us their clothes. We wash and sort them. Some pieces go into our small thrift shop, but we focus mainly on upcycling, the creative aspect. We raise public awareness by showing them what can be done with this textile “waste,” explains Béatrice Souillet, president of Le Nouveau Mode, the association behind the creation of this space dedicated to the circular economy. “Either we teach you how to upcycle them, or we can take care of it. The aim is to take the old and make the beautiful.”

L'Admérane welcomes fashion entrepreneurs and RSO beneficiaries who come to learn sewing skills, and also offers awareness-raising workshops for schoolchildren and professionals. The workplace has even entered into a partnership with leading telecommunications operator, Orange Caraïbe. The team recovers discarded items, such as old banners, and gives them a second life and also conducts workshops for company staff in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana.

See Also: Innovative Metal-Free Method Upcycles PET Waste Into Valuable Chemicals

“Fashion is the second most polluting sector in the world. We must therefore adopt responsible consumption,” maintains Souillet. “In Guadeloupe, certain initiatives have been set up to recover textile ‘waste,’ but while some of it is processed in the archipelago, much of the clothing collected is still sent to mainland France or Africa. We have to process our textile waste ourselves. Recovering this waste creates jobs.”

Fighting against fast fashion

However, designers of upcycled products face another problem: fast fashion. “We can't recycle poor-quality materials. There used to be fast fashion, but ultra-fast fashion, with [the rise of] sites like Shein and Temu, generates poor-quality materials, sometimes even dangerous to health and the environment,” she continues. For Souillet, it is therefore necessary to communicate more effectively with the general public and explain that, rather than buying several garments of poor quality at low prices, it is better to pay a little more for a garment that will last.

Supported by the Conseil Départemental de la Guadeloupe and having won several awards, l’Admérane recently became a PTCE — a territorial cluster for economic cooperation. At the same time, Souillet has created her own brand, Cyrikaë, based on a firm commitment to environmental awareness.

Art as a response to overconsumption

The work of artist and eco-designer Guy Gabon, meanwhile, is based on reuse and transformation. To her, being an eco-designer means rejecting the use of raw materials in favour of secondary materials — those that have already had a first life. It is a choice that became clear to her as she observed her environment and its rapid degradation. Faced with the proliferation of waste and the spiral of overconsumption, she realised the urgent need to take action against a system that produces disposable objects, often made from materials that last much longer than their intended use.

In Gabon’s practice, no material is predetermined: metal, plastic, textiles; it all depends on the message or form she wishes to express. This self-imposed constraint is, in her view, a necessary condition for reducing waste production. “You can’t have it all,” she says, convinced that the ecological transition will involve a degree of discomfort and sacrifice.

Twenty years after embarking on this path, Gabon has noticed a change in attitudes, though she still considers the pace of that change to be slow. Despite persistent resistance, environmental awareness is growing globally. “We have to change the way we live in the world,” she insists, calling for patience and determination to bring about lasting behavioral change.

See Also: From poultry waste to food packaging: the end of plastic wrap as we know it?

More responsible festivals

In the events sector, too, efforts are being made to improve waste management. Some festivals can produce dozens of tons of waste, which is why more and more organisers are adopting policies to reduce and sort waste. The aim is to avoid waste at source by reducing the consumption of disposable or single-use products, implementing a responsible purchasing policy, raising stakeholder awareness, and enabling waste sorting during events.

Before and during each event, organisers carry out awareness campaigns among staff and festival-goers to encourage them to consume differently. They may provide, for example, reusable cups and washable tableware, opt for glass or keg containers, limit the use of plastic bottles, and promote food composting. Dedicated areas for raising awareness are also established within exhibitor villages.

The management of waste at festivals is often entrusted to associations like Mouvances Caraïbes, which specialises in environmental education and sustainable development, and works to raise awareness of these issues. Through friendly initiatives, the association aims to inform the public about a new way of living that is fairer, more rewarding, more environmentally friendly, and more collaborative.

For seven years now, François Vatin has been working with associations like these as an event waste manager, and joined Mouvances Caraïbes a year ago. During festivals, he coordinates waste management and communication between public bodies, organisers, exhibitors, and service providers. Nevertheless, in nearly a decade, the engineer has struggled to see any improvement in practices. Instead, he says that while many people want to adopt a responsible policy, cost remains a barrier, particularly for small organisers with limited finances.

In a sector where budgets fluctuate from one event to the next, depending on subsidies and various partnerships, the slightest reduction in funding inevitably leads to a reduction in actions. For Vatin, this reduction is often to the detriment of actions aimed at preserving the environment, and he deplores certain popular beliefs that persist. “People tell us they no longer sort their waste. They think it’s pointless. But in Guadeloupe, there are more and more trash cans, so progress is being made,” he says. “Overall, more and more sectors are developing and more people are getting involved. We can no longer hide behind this argument. Now it depends on people’s willingness.”

Towards a zero-waste archipelago

On the public sector side, waste management is a priority. The Regional Council of Guadeloupe has set a goal of making the archipelago a zero-waste territory by 2035.

Since 2016, all the municipalities in Guadeloupe have transferred their waste treatment responsibilities to a public, inter-municipal cooperation — basically a joint association known as EPCI, through which new waste treatment and recovery facilities have been created.

In this vein, an energy recovery plant is expected to open in Guadeloupe in 2028. The project, estimated at EUR 96 million (just over USD 111 million), should enable waste to be incinerated and contribute to electricity production. However, there is still much to be done to achieve the objectives.

This is a long-term, collective effort on a regional scale, which is why, in September 2024, following a meeting between representatives of the French territories in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, and Saint Lucia, an agreement was signed. The Zero Waste in the Caribbean project, led by the waste recovery union Syvade and financed by INTERREG Caribbean, aims to pool knowledge and develop waste recovery sectors throughout the Caribbean.

(SY)

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