The fifth and final Steering Committee Meeting of PacWaste addressed the project’s progress to date, as well as remaining activities to be completed prior to 31 December 2017, the end date of the project.
PacWaste, funded by the EU and implemented by SPREP, aims to improve regional and national hazardous waste management across the Pacific.
17 May 2017: The Steering Committee of the Pacific Hazardous Waste Management Project (PacWaste) held its fifth and final meeting, where representatives from 12 Pacific island countries discussed the project’s progress to date, as well as remaining activities to be completed prior to 31 December 2017, the end date of the project.
PacWaste is a €7.85 million project that was launched in 2013, funded by the EU and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). It has aimed to improve regional and national hazardous waste management across the Pacific through a focus on asbestos, healthcare waste, E-waste and atoll waste management.
Addressing the meeting held in Apia, Samoa, from 11-12 May 2017, SPREP Director-General Kosi Latu emphasized PacWaste’s achievements in each of the focus areas, and the important role the project has played in highlighting the public health impacts of waste management in the region, a topic he said received little attention in the past. Delegates also discussed possible linkages between PacWaste and the Pacific-EU Regional Waste Management Project, which will be funded through the 11th European Development Fund, will get underway in 2018, and is viewed as the successor project to PacWaste. [SPREP Press Release] [PacWaste Website]