Environment
Shared Gains?
A Regional Scrap Metal Scheme May Work
Many may consider them waste, but scrap metals when taken through the recycling process can rake up a bit of loose change. That’s great as countries can use an economic incentive, because ensuring that our environment remains healthy is expensive. Anything that helps the environment and earns some money is fantastic.
Compared to some countries in the South Pacific, Micronesian states have yet to fully develop their scrap metal recycling schemes. Since 2003, policy makers in the North Western Pacific have made efforts to address their still-developing recycling programs on various levels.
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The answer may lie in regional cooperation to gain economies of scale, shared transport and reduced contract and sorting costs. Fostering this mutual collaboration is an initiative specific to the North Pacific known as the Pacific Islands Regional Recycling Initiative (PIRRI). The committee overseeing this initiative known as the Pacific Islands Regional Recycling Initiative Committee (PIRRIC) was set up to address the challenge of processing and transporting primary scrap metals generated by Micronesian states.
Phase one of the PIRRI project is yet to be implemented, but the concept of a shared effort, although not new, is a practical one and is in line with UN Agenda 21 aimed at developing SIDS or small island development states.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) encourages mutual collaborations to enhance sustainable development. SPREP fully supports that initial decision made by the 1st Western Pacific Chief Executive Summit in 2003, to establish a committee to examine Micronesia’s infant recyclable waste program.
The following countries and territories have been identified for regional recycling under the PIRRIC scheme: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Guam, Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau.
Of these countries, the FSM’s Yap and Chuuk states, and CNMI are earmarked for the first part of the project while the second phase is expected to cover Pohnpei and Kosrae in FSM and the Marshall Islands.
Metal recycling in the form of aluminum and steel cans is operating successfully in many Pacific Island countries such as Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Vanuatu. In the South Pacific, scrap metals, especially aluminium cans and lead from the lead acid batteries, have the most potential for cost recovery out of other recyclable materials.
The size and nature of our vulnerable islands are not in proportion to the
rising pile of metallic waste that comes in the form of disused and discarded motor vehicles, old machinery, domestic whiteware and other metallic waste materials. Not only are they an eyesore that discourage tourists, these bulky wastes consume valuable space in landfills or pollute lagoons and the ocean. Besides, a sitting junkyard is also money wasting away because, in a reusable sense, it is good waste.
Car sales figures for years 2000 to 2003 for Guam and CNMI were approximately at 5,500 and 1,000 vehicles per year, respectively. Imagine 500 of these vehicles rusting in a yard, being prime breeding spots for disease-carrying insects such as mosquitoes.
Annual generation of scrap metal estimates from a study conducted in the North Pacific show the following: Each year, Guam, Saipan (CNMI) and Palau generate some 75,000 tons; Rota and Tinian (CNMI) and FSM produce about 35,000 tons; and the Marshall Islands produces upwards of 35,000 tons.
Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia have yet to develop recycling regulations. On the other hand, Guam and CNMI have recycling laws.
It is hoped that this pilot work will determine whether the economies of scale from combining resources outweigh the challenges of shared contracts and irregular generation schedules. Some countries are looking at the Japanese example where car buyers pay an advance recycling fee to cover the costs of recycling when the car’s usable life is over. Most recycling requires a subsidy everywhere in the world—the challenge is to minimize the subsidies paid.
Once mechanisms for the removal of metal scraps are fully established, the PIRRI program may move into the management of other recyclable materials such as glass, aluminium cans and metal cans.
The PIRRIC is aware of the waste management work that SPREP does in its member countries, and will join forces in implementing SPREP’s Regional Solid Waste Management Strategy and Action Plan, both of which have recently been published. Copies are available from SPREP’s Information Resource Centre and the SPREP website.
The writer is the director of the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme, which is based in Apia, Samoa. 2006 is the Pacific Year of the Sea Turtle. For more information, please visit www.sprep.org.
