Kiribati Champions Waste Reduction In The Pacific

For years it appeared that most of the 40,000 people living on South Tarawa would simply have to accept sharing their streets and beaches with the 6,500 tons of solid waste they generated every year. However, as growing volumes of solid and "liquid" waste started to put Tarawa's fragile water lens and lagoon under increasing pressure, the subsequent health risks simply became too difficult to ignore. Now the country is fighting back with a number of creative initiatives designed to encourage communities to turn their waste into a useful resource. The non-government organization "Kaoki Mange!" ('Return the Waste!') has been the key driver in encouraging the diversion of waste away from the country's new landfills towards beneficial re-use through recycling and composting.

Research found that nearly 80 percent of the household waste collected for disposal is valuable plant matter that could be turned into compost to enrich the poor Kiribati soil. The government did not want to fill its new and expensive landfills with organic material, particularly when places like the Taiwan government's new demonstration gardens were crying out for more compost.

Late last year Parliament introduced a buy-back scheme for imported cans (and some bottles) with a 5-cent deposit paid at import. Consumers can now return five cans or bottles at a time for 20 cents with the remaining five cents being set aside to help finance the new recycling operation established by Kaoki Mange! It is hoped that this new recycling operation, developed initially with assistance from UNDP, will eventually be fully self-financed from money raised from container deposits and the sale of recycled materials.

Akeatemange Competition winners Ruka and Tekori Tekitanga. Photo: SPREP

The Kiribati Ministry of Environment and the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) have been helping to support the work of Kaoki Mange! and the Tarawa Urban Council through a pilot project in the community of Bikenibeu West. The objective of the Kiribati International Waters Project (IWP) is to work together with this community to help identify effective, low-cost, solutions that can be used to help the government improve waste management throughout the rest of the country.

Ritia Bakineti, the national coordinator of the Kiribati IWP, says the project was actively looking for ways to support existing waste reduction initiatives and promote some practical solutions in the community. The result was the creation of a successful household waste reduction competition appropriately titled "Akeatemange" or "Zero Waste".

"The main message we wanted to communicate during the competition was that waste is a valuable resource. The competition complements these existing projects by encouraging the community to sort their waste and reduce the amount of waste that needs to be collected so we can extend the lifespan of our new landfills," Bakineti says.

The competition was designed to encourage residents to reduce littering, compost plant material in "banana circles" and separate their remaining "waste" into the new biodegradable "Green Bags" for collection and disposal by the council's garbage collectors.

"A banana circle is a simple composting method where several banana trees are planted around a hole lined with cardboard and any plant waste is simply fed into the hole. Sometimes grey water from the kitchen and laundry is piped in to feed the banana roots. … Of course the main incentive for most people is that they get to grow a healthy supply of bananas for their families," Bakineti says.

The family of Ruka and Tekori Tekitanga was one of the main competition winners and Mrs Tekitanga says their new banana circle has helped them to realise the value of their organic waste. The rich and fertile compost from their banana circle has been used to enhance their abundant garden that now includes flourishing cucumbers and cabbages.

"Our youngest daughter, aged eight, sweeps the house every morning and puts the plant waste in our banana circle. The waste that does not rot is placed in the Green Bags". She adds that the family's wastewater from the laundry and dishwashing that contains detergents is also collected and used in the banana circle. "In this way hardly any pollution will reach the groundwater, thus safeguarding the goodness of water," she says.

Mrs Tekitanga is now ready to harvest one patch of cabbages, which she will sell at the local market. She says she will definitely continue with her home gardening after the competition now that she has an alternative source of income. Her husband has prepared new seedlings to replace those harvested and she says they will always have a regular supply of nutrients for their soil from the "waste" they generate every day.

Unfortunately Bakineti says that none of the 11 wells recently tested in Bikenibeu West are currently fit for drinking or for domestic use.

She believes the high level of fecal coliform in the groundwater is probably the result of the poor management of human and pig waste.

"The Akeatemange Competition has been a really useful and important first step in helping people to understand how we can all benefit if we starting viewing our waste as a valuable resource. The next stage for us is to try and find more people like the Tekitanga family who can help to champion the adoption of safer systems to manage the waste from humans and pigs," she says.

For more information on the Kiribati International Waters Project visit: www.sprep.org/iwp. The writer is director of the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, which is based in Apia, Samoa. See www.sprep.org.ws