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A new report has found that more than 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste was dumped or burned globally last year, which is the equivalent of 350 cruise ships, and up more than 20 per cent in just five years. The UN's Global E-waste Monitor 2020 also ranked Oceania as the second highest region, per capita, of e-waste, with each person generating 16.1 kilograms on average, it said. Common e-waste items include old mobile phones, batteries, TVs, computers and tablets. But Australia and New Zealand are the leading producers of that e-waste, with people in Pacific countries like Samoa and Tonga estimated to produce 3.1 kilograms per person, and in Fiji and PNG, the figure was just 1.5 kilograms. It's a problematic issue across the globe but in the Pacific, where in many countries there isn't the space for all this dumped technology, problems are looming. The region's peak environment body, SPREP, is working on several projects to tackle the issue. Bradley Nolan, the Project Manager for PacWastePlus, which is funded by the European Union, told Pacific Beat "disposable societies and large incomes" in countries like Australia and New Zealand explain why residents in those countries produce such large quantities of e-waste. And he suggested that Australia and other donor partners may in fact contribute to some of the e-waste in Pacific nations, with equipment such as computers donated when they had reached their end-of-life there. "There have been some incidents where some of the metropolitan countries [ie Australia, New Zealand] when some of their products are at the end of their useful life, say in a government department, has gifted those to countries to help out. "But of course they have less life, so they become an instant e-waste problem when they hit the islands...so aid and the work that people are attempting to do, with great intentions, creates some significant problems at the other end," he said.

Culture is a key areas for SPC, and the Social Development Programme (SDP) has lead responsibility for the portfolio. Part of this work is to develop organisational capabilities that include knowledge of Pacific cultures and their critical relevance to our work with our members. This guide is not all encompmassing but rather aims to equip us with some basic cultural knowledge of the Pacific countries and communities we serve.

This document presents the highlights of the JPRISM II activities conducted in Palau during the project period (2017-2022) including the national and regional outputs of the project.

Contamination of the environment by pollutants like heavy metals is a growing phenomenon mainly driven by anthropogenic activities.

Anthropogenic activities continue to be a major source of recalcitrant toxicants such as heavy metals (HMs) in the environment.

The purpose of the Greening of the Games Sustainability Report is to share the vision, strategy, key outcomes, best practices, and lessons learned before, during, and subsequent to the Samoa 2019 Pacific Games

As this report is published, the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before, it hit, the Asia-Pacific region was progressing too slowly on delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Transformation approaches will be needed for progress, especially on goals facing the most persistent shortcomings. This report shows that some countries have been able to move faster than others and make progress on various aspects of the 2030 Agenda. If focuses on six interlinked transformative entry points that are key to the Global Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030.

The containment of the spread of covid 19 pandemic and limitations on commercial activities, mobility and manufacturing sector have significantly affected waste management, Waste management is critical to human development and health outcomes, especially during the covid 19 pandemic. The invaluable service provided by the waste management, sector ensures that the unusual heaps of waste that poses health risks and escalate the spread of covid 19 is avoided. in this study, we assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management by observing lockdown and social distancing measures.

Waste received at the main Bouffa landfill in Vanuatu is comprised of up to 35% beverage containers products (aluminium, PET, glass). Beverage containers are also commonly seen as litter and in informal stockpiles or burnt by communities in pits. Vanuatu has had limited success implementing long-term solutions for recovery of recyclable items, due to lack of financing, infrastructure, technical expertise, and formal waste collection services. The Vanuatu Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation (DEPC) views a Sustainable Financing system (known as a Product Stewardship Scheme (PSS)) as a solution to enable the collection and management of recyclable items. The DEPC, with the support of Donors and a Working Group of interested parties, has been developing the PSS since 2017. The DEPC seek for PacWastePlus to support the completion of additional components of this pathway – with the goal of implementing the PSS.

We present a list of Chemicals of Concern (CoCs) in plastic toys. We started from available studies reporting chemical composition of toys to group plastic materials, as well as to gather mass fractions and function of chemicals in these materials. Chemical emissions from plastic toys and subsequent human exposures were then estimated using a series of models and a coupled near-field and far-field exposure assessment framework. Comparing human doses with reference doses shows high Hazard Quotients of up to 387 and cancer risk calculated using cancer slope factors of up to 0.0005. Plasticizers in soft plastic materials show the highest risk, with 31 out of the 126 chemicals identified as CoCs, with sum of Hazard Quotients > 1 or child cancer risk > 10􀀀 6. Our results indicate that a relevant amount of chemicals used in plastic toy materials may pose a non-negligible health risk to children, calling for more refined investigations and more human- and eco-friendly alternatives. The 126 chemicals identified as CoCs were compared with other existing regulatory prioritization lists. While some of our chemicals appear in other lists, we also identified additional priority chemicals that are not yet covered elsewhere and thus require further attention. We finally derive for all considered chemicals the maximum Acceptable Chemical Content (ACC) in the grouped toy plastic materials as powerful green chemistry tool to check whether chemical alternatives could create substantial risks.