Recycling is one of the best and most effective ways of reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, says a resident of Kabutri Drive, Koronivia, home of Fiji’s first community-based pilot recycling program.
Sunil Maharaj said rubbish disposal was a huge issue in their area, but they were addressing it through the community-based pilot recycling project launched last year, driven by the Pacific Recycling Foundation and Waste Recyclers Fiji Ltd.
“From last year we started with waste recycling,” the 39-year-old said.
“And ever since then, we have noticed a big change in our area.
“With the growing population, we could see that rubbish disposal was an issue in our area and it would only get worse if we did not do anything about it,” Mr Maharaj said.
“Over a year ago, the Nausori Town Council tried to pick up the rubbish, but because the piles were so huge, and because of the different times people dumped their rubbish, it was not practical for the council in terms of collection.
“When Waste Recyclers Fiji Ltd came to this area, they started this pilot project of having recycle bins and we have seen improvements.”
“What I see right now is that the community is taking huge advantage of it.
“There is sort of education and awareness out there in terms of how people dispose of rubbish and they are starting to follow it.
“They have started to separate their rubbish, such as tins, cartons, papers, green wastage recycles etcetera. So you can see, this has led to rubbish being better managed.
“It’s now more organised. People are putting it in the right way and the collection is not that big an issue right now.”
Mr Maharaj said the 15 advocates in his community went house to house to create awareness with people on the importance of recycling.
“I can say, people know that rubbish is a big challenge and it is a big issue, but then how and what to do, that was something that was lacking.
“We had to go house to house to just make people aware by telling them about recycling and what were some of the things that they needed to do.
“Afterwards, a community group was formed and they were invited to meetings where their views and opinions were heard.
“At the same time they were told of possible solutions and what was required of them to achieve this.
“So it was more like getting the community to buy into Waste Recyclers vision which was basically to better manage rubbish.”
Mr Maharaj said the project had changed the lives of the people in his community.
“If you walk along our road, you’ll hardly find rubbish lying here and there.
“Our place has become more beautiful, our rubbish is getting more organised and is treated in the right manner. You’ll hardly see any piles of rubbish sitting on our road.”
