29 October 2015: At the Third Annual Steering Committee Meeting of the PacWaste project, representatives of 13 Pacific island countries participants discussed PacWaste’s work programme for the coming year, and exchanged information and experiences regarding waste management practices. PacWaste is an EU-funded, €7.85 million, four-year project implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to improve regional hazardous waste management in the Pacific region.

The Steering Committee and related workshop convened from 20-22 October 2015, in Tarawa, Kiribati.

Participants learned about sustainable waste management initiatives in Kirabati, such as the pre-paid “green bag” project to raise public awareness through performances. A similar pre-paid bag project will be implemented in Majuro, Marshall Islands. Participants emphasized the importance of engaging women and youth in waste management initiatives.

Ileana Miritescu, EU Delegation for the Pacific, highlighted PacWaste’s four main areas of focus: asbestos, healthcare waste, E-waste and integrated atoll waste management. The project also aims to foster links between Pacific island countries, she said, to encourage information sharing on sustainable waste management. In Kiribati, PacWaste is supporting healthcare waste management initiatives, undertaking asbestos removal works and supporting an e-waste pilot project to safely extract and export valuable or hazardous materials from old electronic and computer equipment. [SPREP Press Release] [PacWaste Website]