Essential in protecting the environment
* David Sheppard
In today’s world, it is very easy to generate waste, whether it is our left-over food that has gone bad, the wrapper from our favourite chocolate bar, yesterday’s newspaper, or the packaging from our new appliance or electronic gadget.
Waste is an inevitable by-product of our human existence, and the amount of waste generated often increases with affluence.
Keeping waste at manageable levels and managing it safely is essential to protecting the environment and our health.
In the Pacific islands context, safe waste management is even more critical because of the risks to fragile ecosystems and natural resources on which many islanders rely for their livelihoods.
Waste is also a political and economic issue, as poor waste disposal and management can affect human health and the encouragement of tourism.
Many Pacific islands countries and territories have made progress over the last decade in implementing solid waste management programmes, but there is still a long way to go. Many challenges exist, including a lack of resources, high staff turnover and lack of political will.
In 2009, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), with the assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), consulted extensively with its members to develop the Regional Solid Waste Management Strategy 2010-2015, which charts the course for addressing key waste management challenges.
This strategy aims to adopt cost-effective and self-sustaining waste management systems in Pacific islands countries and territories.
In this article, I will outline some challenges facing our Pacific islands region and identify some of the success stories, while laying out some of the future plans for SPREP’s regional solid waste management programme.
Over the last five years, SPREP with the support of JICA and the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID) has assisted Pacific islands countries and territories in implementing a sound policy and legislative framework to underpin waste management programmes.
Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Tokelau and Vanuatu have developed national waste management policies and strategies, and some have been endorsed at the ministerial level.
Assistance has also been provided to countries such as Samoa and Vanuatu to develop draft their waste management legislation.
However, even with the right legislation in place, the challenge for many countries will be to ensure they have sufficient enforcement capacity.
Enforcement is important. Since 2009, Fiji has undertaken Non-Compliance Day Campaigns, consisting of two to three days of targeted enforcement of waste management regulations.
SPREP’s work over the next five years will build on this kind of national initiative and use regional resources to enhance enforcement capacity.
Household waste generation is on the rise. The evidence is clear and is all around us. Our Pacific region has more access to world markets, which are flooded with cheap, disposable convenience products, and in many countries people are moving to cities for employment. These factors contribute to the growth of waste.
The types of waste generated is also shifting from organic kitchen and yard waste to more packaging-type waste (paper, plastic, cans), which reflects the increased availability of imported products.
The reduction of waste must play an increasingly important role in our waste management programmes, particularly as many Pacific countries are small and lack space to dispose of waste. There are an increasing number of positive examples from Pacific countries.
Several countries have implemented waste minimisation programmes, including the Kaoki Mange Project in Kiribati, which implemented a recycling programme for aluminium cans, PET bottles and lead acid batteries using a container deposit scheme.
Under this programme, a five-cent deposit is charged on each can which enters Kiribati, four cents of which is refunded when the can is returned to a designated depot. The remaining one cent is paid to the operator of the programme, to subsidise packaging and export costs, and the operator is allowed to keep the proceeds from the sale of the cans.
This innovative programme transforms cans from a waste product into a resource, thereby significantly reducing overall waste levels.
Fiji, Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia are in the process of implementing similar programmes. In Guam and the Marshall Islands this is being addressed through a unique partnership involving schools and businesses.
Samoa and Papua New Guinea have targeted plastic bags by banning the production, importation and use of non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags, while Fiji is undertaking an evaluation of options to reduce plastic bag consumption.
Recycling of waste is very important and has been used very effectively in many countries. Two major obstacles to recycling in Pacific countries are the lack of in-country recycling facilities, and the high cost of exporting recycled materials due to the geographical isolation of many Pacific islands.
The small population of most Pacific countries and territories is also a problem, since the rate of accumulation of recyclable waste is too slow to make a commercial recycling operation viable.
To address these problems, SPREP’s future work will assess and demonstrate new and viable local recycling methods and explore regional coordination mechanisms for recycling.
We will also share lessons learnt from good case studies and provide information on appropriate policy tools to encourage waste minimisation.
It takes money to manage waste, and as the amount of waste is increasing, more money is required to manage this waste.
Sustainable financing for waste management is thus one of the key challenges facing Pacific islands countries and territories.
The budget for waste management in many countries is often inadequate. As a result, areas such as collection of waste, environmental monitoring and waste management in rural areas are often neglected to the detriment of other sectors such as tourism, public health, and terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Charging fees for waste management services is often necessary, but difficult to implement, as residents will be reluctant to pay for existing services that have not been improved.
As a region, we have to move towards user pay systems which are equitable and based on the polluter-pays principle—those who cause the pollution should pay proportionately the costs for managing that pollution.
An equitable system of charges should not put undue pressure on the poor and socially disadvantaged, and definitely should not give a free ride to the major waste generators and polluters.
Studies in Palau and Tonga have shown that the economic costs to make up for poor waste management can exceed the costs of managing the waste properly in the first place. In other words, doing nothing actually imposes more of a financial cost for people.
In our beautiful Pacific, some countries are taking steps towards sustainable financing such as the Cook Islands, which implements an environmental levy on departing visitors through the airport departure tax; Fiji, Guam and Vanuatu which charge a fee for tipping waste at the landfills; and Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tonga charge a fee for providing waste collection services.
The long-term objective should be for waste management sectors to become financially self-sustaining. Over the past four years, the Pacific islands have been fortunate to have attracted the generous support for waste management from the governments of Japan and New Zealand. SPREP has also recently signed an agreement with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) to implement a waste management project.
Effective waste management underpins many aspects of sustainable development in our region. SPREP is committed to working with Pacific countries and partners and donors to help reduce and better manage waste in our region.
We look forward to working together to achieve the vision of the Regional Solid Waste Management Strategy.
* David Sheppard is the director of SPREP based in Apia, Samoa.
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