Changing the narrative – experts discuss how circularity can improve waste management in the Pacific

1 October 2024, Port Vila – Waste management and recycling experts from around the region have gathered in Port Vila, Vanuatu this week to convene the Circular Economy workshop which will focus on changing the narrative on how the region approaches waste management. 

A circular economy approach to waste management aims to reduce waste by keeping resources in use for as long as possible. This can be achieved through re-designing products to ensure that only items that can be reused, repaired, or recycled are manufactured, and that systems that enable manufacturing and reuse of items that keep resources in use. 

“We are currently facing a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Plastic pollution has been identified as an issue that is now of equal importance to climate change as studies have shown that plastics have made their way not only into our environment and our food sources, but they have infiltrated the very fabric of life by entering into our bloodstreams,” says Mr. Sefanaia Nawadra, Director General of SPREP. 

“The responsibility before you at this workshop is to exchange information on how we can adopt in the Pacific more life cycle-based approaches like circular economy that allows us to address the waste not only from when it is landed before us to manage but when it is produced and how we can better recycle, reuse, and prolong the lives of useful products and be more responsible in how we address the management of waste materials generated,” Mr. Nawadra added. 

“It will require us top take a different approach, from how we set up our legislations, policies and practices, and the capacities we need to build in the region to adopt this necessary approach because we can clearly see that the way we are operating now is not working for us.” 

Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Climate Change, Vanuatu, Ms. Rolenas Tavue Baereleo, Acting Director of the Vanuatu Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation and also the Acting Director General of the Ministry of Climate Change, highlighted the work that has been done in-country with the assistance of projects such as the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD)-funded Sustainable Waste Actions in the Pacific project, the European Union-funded PacWastePlus (PWP) Programme, and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded Japanese Technical Cooperation Project for Promotion of Regional Initiative on Solid Waste Management in Pacific Island Countries (J-PRISM) project. 

“A waste audit conducted by PWP in 2020 revealed that organic waste constitutes one of the highest proportions of composition at the Bouffa Landfill. Based on this finding, the Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation saw the value of a circular approach and sought to change the reliance on the landfill and community dumps for waste management. 

“Some of the initiatives that are currently being implemented by the DEPC to achieve circular economy includes the Product Stewardship Scheme which targets beverage containers, the Plastics Ban which came into force in 2018, and more recently we have been looking at increasing our composting operations in Port Vila, turning waste into a resource to help our growers grow more produce. That is the essence of circular economy,” she said. 

The Ambassador of Japan to Vanuatu, His Excellency Hokuda Naoisha, highlighted Japan’s continuous support to the Pacific through J-PRISM, which is entering its third phase and 25th year of providing technical support to waste management in the Pacific. 

“As a result of J-PRISM’s assistance to the region over the past 25 years, the Japanese “Fukuoka Method” of semi-aerobic landfill structures has been applied to final waste disposal sites in seven countries, and recycling associations have been established in five. 

J-PRISM III has also worked with SWAP and Vanuatu to improve and rehabilitate the Bouffa landfill in Port Vila, as highlighted by Mr. Sebastien Jaunâtre, First Counsellor of the Embassy of France to Vanuatu. This was done through improving the access road to the landfill and relocating waste stockpiles to enable J-PRISM III to build a new cell where the waste will be dumped. 

“In Vanuatu, the AFD-funded SWAP project has provided direct assistance to the Government of Vanuatu through the Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation. One such example is the implementation of a Used Oil Management Pilot Project by allocating USD 165,000 for the DEPC to build a bulk storage facility while the Ocean Environmental Solutions will operate a pyrolysis machine to reprocess the waste oil for recycled fuel. This activity is an example of one that is fully aligned with the circular economy approact,” Mr. Jaunâtre said. 

The one-week workshop will take a deep-dive into how circularity can help with the management of various waste streams, including hazardous waste and disaster waste, as well as how sustainable financing for waste management can help support the circular economy approach. 

For more information, please contact Ms. Julie Pillet, SWAP Project Manager, at [email protected].