Waste Management and Pollution Control
Poor waste management practices are a major threat to sustainable development in the Pacific islands as they have negative impacts on the region's environment, as well as on public health, water resource quality, fisheries, agriculture, tourism and quality of life in general.

Pacwaste

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is implementing a four year, eight million Euro project to provide fundamental on-ground improvements in the way priority, high-risk wastes are managed in Pacific island countries to help build a healthy, economically and environmentally sustainable Pacific for future generations. The PacWaste project is funded by the European Union under its 10th European Development Fund (EDF10).

The project will focus on three priority hazardous waste streams including asbestos, E-waste and healthcare waste, which are currently not adequately funded through other management programmes. This will include establishment of integrated and on-going systems to manage or destroy electronic E-waste, healthcare and asbestos waste. These systems will result in a reduction in local population exposure to high risk and cancer causing waste streams, as well as cleaner local and regional environments. Improvements in port reception facilities to handle waste shipments will be an essential co-component of this project to improve on-ground waste management.

PacWaste activities will occur over the next four years throughout Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia and include Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Timor Leste.

Project activities will commence early in 2014 with the completion of regional baseline studies to accurately assess the management status of the electronic, healthcare and asbestos waste. The status of regional hazardous waste management in Pacific islands will be assessed through desktop studies followed by in-country surveys and consultations to prioritise key areas for intervention. Contemporary best-practice options for the management of asbestos, E-waste and medical wastes will be identified and modified (as necessary) for Pacific island conditions and replicated through the use of regional guidelines, workshops and information programmes. Particularly important will be the assessment for the upgrade of port infrastructure to allow safe export of hazardous waste materials for disposal through this project.

An additional component of PacWaste will pilot an integrated approach to solid waste management in atoll islands. This will be achieved through identification of the major atoll waste streams (and generation trends) for intervention, and implementation of a model, custom-designed integrated system that addresses waste collection, establishment of sustainable recycling options for major waste streams, improvements to waste disposal infrastructure and practices, and establishment of supporting measures such as economic incentives.