News - Mar 23, 2022 Roundtable Discussions Finalising the ARDF Policy
To reduce recyclable waste entering landfills and to incentivise the community to recycle, Infrastructure Cook Islands (ICI) is designing and establishing an Advance Recovery Fee and Deposit (ARFD) scheme.
ICI recently hosted a Roundtable with project stakeholders which generated valuable discussion between the government departments responsible for key activities of the ARFD.
Following the Roundtable, further in-depth discussions have taken place with the Ministry of Finance Budget and Treasury to identify the best options for the ARDF financial process.
ICI is now working to complete the ARFD Policy to be tabled to Cook Islands Cabinet in the coming months.
“ARFD schemes require coordination from many sectors of government. We at ICI may be the driver and lead agency for this waste financing scheme, but to be successful the scheme needs to be designed in partnership with other Ministry departments such as Finance and Customs. We want this scheme to provide environmental and social benefits to the Cook Islands people for a long time so the more coordination we do know the better chance we have at success”, said the ICI waste team.”
ICI utilised PacWastePlus “do it yourself” resources during the Roundtable to guide discussion and extract key decisions and outstanding actions. “The resources were a useful way for us to guide the Roundtable participants through the components of the scheme and discuss proposed ideas on scheme design already made by ICI.”