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Hazardous waste management remains a challenge in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where exposure to toxic substance and chemicals have adverse impacts on public health and the environment. Increased exposure to hazardous waste in known to cause disease and create serious health problems. For many communities in PNG water resources can be contaminated by pollutants through poorly managed waste handling and disposal.

The absence of a local market for used tyres (whole or shredded) has resulted in the high volume of EOLT stockpiles in the country. This project will establish a legal framework to effectively regulate tyre importation, establish a national standard to ensure long-lasting tyres are imported for use in the country, provide for the development of a funding mechanism, to ensure the sustainable collection and processing of the EOLTs, as well as guide the practical use of the currently stockpiled and any newly generated EOLTs.

Items are imported into Niue in growing numbers, but there are currently limited viable options for their end-of-life management and/or export. As such most items imported are disposed of at the dumpsites or stockpiled on vacant land. Electronic waste stockpiles, in particular are increasing resulting in increased pollution and health risks to Niue people. The priority for Niue is to introduce a financially sustainable system to enable the long term collection, management and export of recyclable and end of life electronic items, utilising the new Recycle facility (funded by the Government of Australia)

One of the priorities of the Fiji Ministry of Environment is to improve organic waste management to support agricultural activities on Fiji. For this reason, the ministry is utilising the allocated PacWastePlus country investment to design and implement community-based programmes that effectively collect and process organic wastes to prevent environmental pollution and support agricultural activities.

Three-month rainfall is typically used for monitoring grasslands, shallow rooted plants and small water body, moisture deficits.

Items are imported into the Cook Islands is growing numbers, but there are currently limited viable options for their end-of-life management and/or export. As such, most items imported are disposed of at landfills or stockpiled on vacant land. The priority for the Cook Islands is to reduce waste to landfill, and its infrastructure Cook Islands seeks to focus their PacWastePlus investment to support the implementation of an effective Sustainable Financing system (known as the Advance Recovery Deposit and Fee) to enable long-term, self financing collection and recovery to recyclable items.

The threats of increase waste and pollution threatens our sustainable development and now elevated even more so than ever before. We are now facing a major crisis, WE MUST ACT NOW, by firstly we are making a better consumer choices, secondly we must promote recycling and adopt a more innovative approach to using traditional alternatives, this is consistent with the Cleaner Pacific 2025 for a shift from a linear economy to a circular economy where we import commodities that can be used, recycle and reduced to recyclable waste.

Sustainable Waste Action in the Pacific teaser video.

Marine litter negatively affects the environment, people and coastal economies around the world. In the Pacific region, the problem is even more severe given the reliance of countries on healthy ocean ecosystems and services.

Plastics pollution, including marine litter; is a global social, economic, and environmental emergency requiring urgent attention. Plastics are produced from fossil fuels, and once released into the environment, they never disappear. Instead, they degrade into physical and chemical forms, leading to the contamination of all biophysical systems. If we carry on business-as-usual this will culminate to 1.1 billion tonnes having entered the world’s oceans by 2030