Environment
Tidy Rubbish
Japanese Technology Transforms Samoa's Dump
Like many haphazardly managed landfills around the Pacific, Samoa’s Tafaigata dump was a festering nose- and eye-sore. Vermin scurried and carrion circled the mounds of uncovered solid waste, while the threat of groundwater contamination from leaching hazardous waste grew with each day of its operation.
With help from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, expertise from the South Pacific Regional Environment Program and Samoa’s own Department of Lands, Surveys and Environment, Tafaigata has received a major cosmetic and environmental facelift. JICA waste expert Shiro Amano, who is based at SPREP’s Apia headquarters, says this is the first time the use of enclosing embankments, with pipes to collect and extract polluted water, has been set up on a Pacific Island. Called the Fukuoka Method, it’s only previous use has been in Asia. “This is the first time the Fukuoka Method has been used in this part of the world,” Amano says.
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The Fukuoka Method is a design-based, low-tech way of solving a nasty environmental issue. The old dump was reconfigured with earth-moving equipment into a series of large embankments where rubbish is now dumped, then gradually backfilled to allow registered waste collectors to retrieve what they can for recycling. The new system alleviates much of the smell associated with tipsites—and encourages a more rapid organic decomposition process. Polluted water from the rubbish, called leachate, is drained off by a piping system into a retention pond, to be later dissipated back into the landfill and treated naturally. “The beauty of this method is that it takes out the threat of leached chemicals polluting the groundwater. It is low cost and simple to operate,” Amano adds. But preventing materials from filling the dumpsite in the first place is part of the aim of the newly-configured rubbish program. Amano points out that as affluence grows in the region, so does mass consumption and, thus, mass waste disposal problems.
“Materials become waste only if no one wants to use them. But there are many things that can be used from the disposed rubbish. That is why people, pigs and dogs all roam around open dumps looking for something valuable to them. But people should be picking up the useable materials before they go into a landfill. To do this, we need to segregate the materials and collect them separately from other waste without being mixed up. Materials like bottles, aluminum cans, timber and metals can be re-used or recycled. Diverting waste from going into the landfill with proper recycling can save the life of the landfill greatly”
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Amano says there is evidence that Tafaigata, in its uncontrolled previous state, had contaminated water and damaged a downstream plantation. Also, open burning used to occur at Tafaigata and this released noxious gases and particulates into the air of the neighborhood. Gaining control over the landfill, covering it and sealing off potential leachate, is the key to dump rehabilitation, according to Amano.
There’s another issue too. A human one. Samoa has several times been embarrassed by news stories about adult and child scavengers crawling the dumpsite in search of food, useable items or materials like aluminum cans that can be redeemed for small amounts of money. These news stories were often presented in the context that they proved that poverty existed in the country. But these human scavengers are part of the total ecology of a dump site and they are taken into account in the Fukuoka Method. “Scavengers are turned into landfill helpers,” says Amano, “and they work with the local government to help operate and maintain the landfill. As the landfill became properly operated and looked better, the workers, including former scavengers, are now proud of it.”
In the Fukuoka Method, once a landfill has reached its capacity, it is landscaped, planted and monitored for 10 years. Former landfills can eventually become public parks or golf courses.
Samoa’s Minister of Lands, Surveys and Environment, Tagaloa Sale Tagaloa, gave the keynote address at the Jan. 30 opening of the made-over site. His department will now operate the Tafaigata Tip.
