In 2010 a new garbage department was
created within the Ministry of Home Affairs and was given the name Solid Waste
Agency of Tuvalu (SWAT) – here is its headquarters:
The AusAID funded waste management project
in 2000, undertook a range of waste production estimates. Final estimates were
0.43 kg per person per day and consisted of over 50% biodegradables; 10% each
of metals, paper, plastic and bottles; and the remainder are construction,
textiles and hazardous wastes. As far
as I can see, there is little waste separation being carried out today –
garbage is picked up in open trailers and driven to the garbage dump in a large
borrow pit:
There are two colours of bins in common use
– pink and blue. I found a dark pink one
with “Metal” written on it, and some of the blue ones have “Plastic” written on
them:
There are also some old green bins around (probably from a previous Aid project). Most of these bins are in poor repair,
although there is a stash of new ones at the back of the SWAT headquarters:
Households also use empty biscuit
containers, plastic bags, or sacks for storing waste when bins are full. There is an annual collection fee of $40,
which is paid by approximately 80% of households – it is not clear how the
collection service distinguishes which houses have paid.
The Solid Waste Authority of Tuvalu (SWAT)
also maintains large, communal waste bins at selected sites around Funafuti,
along the main roads, and outside all community meeting halls for people to
dispose of wastes:
Illegal dumping and burning of wastes are
commonly practiced around Funafuti given the inadequacy of solid waste
collection services. Wastes are disposed of in the ocean, or in “borrow pits”
around the island. There are also many
rusting hulks of cars etc around the island:
Now that there is an ongoing project to
fill in the borrow pits, it is becoming
urgent that something be done about recycling some of the waste, in order to
minimize the amount that needs to be dumped.
Some green waste is being compacted by the SWAT team, but this does not
seem to include any of the household biodegradeable waste:
The Taipei,China Technical Mission operates
a centralized composting facility at its agricultural project site. A
chipper
is used to break down green waste collected by the Swat team for
composting. The compost is then sold to farmers and households for fertilizer –
pig manure is added to make the compost:
As part of efforts to scale up the
diversion of green waste from the dumpsite, an additional two chippers were
procured in 2013 with EU assistance. The
Taiwanese nursery is very impressive, and cultivates both plants and vegetables
for the island:
For a time, a nongovernment organisation
(NGO) implemented an aluminium can recycling program. The NGO managed to recycle
and export 50–70 tons of aluminium
per year to New Zealand. However, operations
were not financially self-sustaining; hence, recycling activities
ceased. As
part of current EU assistance package on
waste management, efforts are being
made to increase the capacity of the private sector to support recycling
activities. Financing has been provided for the purchase of a baler
to crush
and bale aluminium and steel cans for processing overseas, as well as new
trailers with waste cages for the collection of recyclables.
As funding has been one of the major
constraints in sustaining waste management programs, the government is
considering the introduction of a waste management levy (WML) on imported goods,
creating a green fund. A new airport
departure tax, is also being considered to complement the WML in raising funds
to help improve waste management in Tuvalu. In the meantime a forlorn sign is encouraging
some social awareness of the problem:
No comments:
Post a Comment