The Dawasamu Waste Management Programme has been implemented to improve waste disposal. Collection points have been built in the villages, where families can recycle their tin cans, glass, hard plastics, aluminium & ceramics instead of burning waste or using landfills. Focusing on education & behaviour change prior to the construction of recycling points, followed by effective monitoring & additional workshops. This sustainable solution puts ownership directly in the hands of the villagers.

The options the villages previously had were to burn or bury their waste in the villages; this poses problems for the village that cannot be ignored. Burying waste releases hazardous toxins into the soil & sea in a sensitive marine area. This pollution compromises the plantations & marine life, which serves as an important food source for villagers. Burning waste contributes to environmental damage & is a serious health hazard since it is burned indiscriminately around the communities.

Working alongside villagers to best meet each village’s needs & encourage ownership over the programme. We conduct an educational workshops with the goal is to educate the importance of recycling & how to recycle. Through activities, discussion, & a presentation, explains what common household materials used in Fiji are recyclable & how to sort them using a recycling point, which we will work together to construct. This will be followed by monitoring, maintenance & sorting of materials.

Through monthly monitoring, we can determine the volume of the recycling bags across the district. The aim is to provide larger villages with enough recycling points to carry out a collection every 3 months periodically. We also monitor collection day & the recycling center in Lami provides us with the total weights of recycled materials from collection. This information allows us to track the projects progress, if there are issues with the sorting, a determine a method or remedy as such.