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Press Release: Capacity Development

Regional training to improve solid waste management in the Pacific

2/19/2007

Sixteen participants from 12 Pacific Island countries are expected to gain fresh knowledge from a three-week training course on solid waste management. The intensive programme runs from February 19 to March 9 at the SPREP headquarters in Apia, Samoa. The participants of the 6th Regional Training Programme represent various levels of the waste industry in their respective countries.

The 6th Regional Training Programme Participants from across the Pacific will be trained in most aspects of waste management such as waste minimisation, landfills, and managing the increasing costs of waste.

“There are many recent successes from the Pacific that will be shared,” Officer-in-Charge for SPREP, Taito John Roache said. “Participants will learn as much from each other as from the experts.”


Highlights will include the very successful Samoan system including the landfills at Tafaigata and in Savai’i. The Samoan landfills have been built at a fraction of the costs of comparable facilities elsewhere in the Pacific, and their design means that they are cheaper to run, emit less foul smell and greenhouse gases, and have a reduced impact on nearby streams.

The recent successes of Kiribati will also be shared. Kiribati has used a deposit and refund system to encourage the recycling of aluminium cans, plastic bottles, and car batteries. It works like the traditional glass bottle refund system such as operated by Vailima Brewery in Samoa.

“The Kiribati system has cleaned up the country, increased employment and pays for the recycling system at no cost to the taxpayer. It has been an outstanding success that we could all learn from and follow,” Mr Taito John added.

Mr Taito John expressed gratitude to Japan and the World Health Organisation (WHO) for their continuing support of the training programme. The programme has trained over one hundred Pacific Islanders to manage their waste more effectively.

Related Link: SPREP waste resources