A Japanese expert has raised concerns for Samoa’s inability to properly process plastic waste. Samoa needs an urgent solution before time runs out for the Tafaigata landfill.

Mr. Satoru Mimura is a JICA expert on waste management leading the Japan’s Technical Cooperation Project for Promotion of Regional Initiative on Solid Waste management (J-PRISM) in Pacific Island Countries.

“We are trying to overcome a lot of technical challenges and one of the ways is the disposal of plastic bottles,” said Mr. Satoru

“The best solution is to recycle plastic bottles and turn in to material for new bottles but that it isn’t easy to do. The point is to encourage rubbish segregation and people in Samoa should be aware to not mix plastic in to waste but to discard into proper recycle bins.”

Mr. Satoru said it makes it harder to recycle plastic if it is mixed with other waste and hopes that people are educated and made aware of the right way of discarding recyclable rubbish.

The media in Samoa were taken for a tour on Friday on projects which the Japanese Government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is undertaking sectors within Samoa.

The tour party visited the Tafaigata Landfill where the Japanese Technical Cooperation Project for promotion of regional initiative on solid waste management in Pacific Island countries is currently in phase two and was underway.

JICA dispatched a technical expert and as well as held on site trainings to improve on the waste management service in Samoa. Samoa is just one of the many countries in the Pacific that JICA holds technical trainings for waste management.

They have also managed to provide equipment for waste collection monitoring and for plastic recycling in Samoa.

To control plastic pollution, a ban on single use plastic is in place in Samoa and the Government is now considering banning Styrofoam food containers as well.

In Samoa, about 7,000 tonnes of plastic is consumed each year, making up about 16 per cent of the country's waste and in the absence of recycling, most goes into landfill or litter.

In a study on fish in Samoa by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (S.P.R.E.P.), it showed that 97 per cent of fish had consumed some form of plastic. This is plastic waste which had made its way into the ocean through waterways.