Implementing a Deposit Refund System for P.E.T bottles in the Maldives: An Ex-ante Analysis of Political Feasability Based on the Models of Kiribati and Palau

Abstract: PET waste is the most visible environmental threat in the Maldives, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS). The thesis aims to propose the deposit refund system as a policy intervention, and evaluates the feasibility of introducing the system in the Maldives. In order to see how other SIDS have implemented the policy, the research uses policy evaluation framework to analyse the implementation mechanisms (design of material and financial flows, and allocation of roles and responsibilities) and evaluate the environmental effectiveness of the policy, in Kiribati, and Palau, two SIDS in the Pacific. Collection of PET bottles, and reduction of PET litter are used as proxies to assess how much the policy achieved its goals of litter reduction. Based on these findings, and the analysis of the current Maldivian context, a blueprint of a hypothetical deposit refund system is presented, to be potentially implemented in the capital city of the Maldives, Male’, by the newly established Waste Management Corporation (WAMCO). The assessment of the economic viability of implementing a deposit refund system for one year in Male’, based on the Pacific model demonstrate that the deposit refund system can generate a net revenue for the Corporation. Moreover, the political feasibility of introducing this model, based on the assessment of stakeholders’ power and interest reveal that introducing the deposit refund system in the Maldives depend upon the interest and knowledge of policy elites and Parliamentarians belonging to the ruling party. The ruling party has the ultimate power to induce the system, due to the political system being fraught with challenges to democratic consolidation, uneven distribution of power, and weak interest groups.