News - Sep 27, 2023 Western Provincial Government in Gizo Discuss Project Progress

The Western Provincial Government (WPG) representatives in Gizo, Solomon Islands met with a visiting team as part of a coordinated initiative by the Department of Environment and Conservation of the Ministry of Environment Climate Change Disaster Management and Meteorology and the  Programme Management Unit (PMU) country mission and provided an overview on the progress of the country’s proposed Organic processing project to better manage organic waste.

Led by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Patrick Toiraena, the WPG representatives were provided a snapshot of the Solomon Islands project which is focused on establishing a resource recovery programme in the Solomon Islands that effectively diverts organic and recyclable waste from landfill.

Activities that are currently under the design stages include the introduction of an organic processing programme in the Gizo Market, the construction of an organic processing facility, the establishment of a marketing strategy, the introduction of an Advance Recovery Fee and deposit system and legislation in the Solomon Islands to improve recycling rate in the country and the establishment of a recyclable collection centre in Gizo.

The project will also provide training to local officers on the operation of the organic processing facility and targeted education and awareness activities to the Gizo market vendors.

“WPG is thankful to SPREP and the EU-funded PacWaste Plus programme for assisting Gizo with the development of a sustainable processing system that will improve the management of organic waste from our Gizo Market”, said Mr Toiraena.

“We are excited and will work with the programme to assist and progress the implementation stages of this project by enabling the development of the organic and recyclable processing and collection centers”, he further added.

The PMU also informed the WPG representatives of two consultation sessions held with members of the Gizo Market Association to better understand how the programme can enable a meaningful processing system while this opportunity was utilised by the Department of Environment and Conservation to conduct an awareness session on better managing organic wastes in the market to over 32 market vendors, mostly women.

Discussions of the meeting with WPG in Gizo focused on the identification, availability and progress of land clearance to enable the construction of the organic processing facility. The representatives agreed to the recommendation of having an open windrow compost processing system due to the type of waste collected from the Gizo market on a land space of 300-360 m².

An earlier audit of the Gizo market revealed that 55 percent of the waste is coconut waste, with 31 percent being leaf wraps 14 percent food scraps. An average daily total of 400kg of coconut waste is collected from the Gizo market and disposed of at the landfill along with 220kg of leaf wraps.

The PMU team also visited the Gizo landfill, and an innovative recycling partnership initiative called the Upcycling Hub. The Department of Environment and Conservation will continue to work with the PacWaste Plus programme team to progress the implementation of a number of ongoing project activities in Honiara and Gizo.

Photos from meeting with WPG