A local organisation, which is passionate about the environment’s health and wants to keep Samoa plastic free, is at the forefront of recycling and collecting plastic waste around their local community.

Leading by example, Salani Bright Horizons Incorporated is a nonprofit organisation made up of young leaders from Falealili, who share the same passion for ridding their village of plastic waste.

Mata’utia Hetta Fuimaono, who is the founder and president of the organisation, said their ultimate goal is to eventually become a plastic-free community.

“Realistically the amount that we were able to empty from our few locations alone is enough to tell us that our community is in danger if no action is taken," she said. "This plastic waste goes to our landfill and it will destroy our beautiful environment and our ocean which our families rely on for income from fishing.

“We can turn our community into a plastic-free community, yes, we can turn our community into the cleanest community in Samoa. People travelling to Samoa visit our tourist sites such as Saletoga Resort, Salani Surf Resort, Aga Resort and they see that we lead by example. 

"They see that our community is uniform in our rubbish stands for general rubbish, that they see of course we do have rubbish cages to segregate the cans and the plastic. I've always valued where I'm from. I watched my community enjoy the land and ocean while growing up."

Mata’utia said when she joined the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in 2016, her passion for the environment became a reality, as she saw different nations and organisations meet around the region to discuss the environment. 

She said her passion wooed other like-minded individuals who came together from her community to create an organisation now called Salani Bright Horizons.

“Because we are a tiny organisation we rely solely on grants and fundraising, we tried our very best to visit communities as frequently as possible to check our plastic segregation centres. Most activities are funded from our own pocket,” said Mata’utia. 

“We were so fortunate to have a group of youth from the HXP Program in America last week who helped us out with our sorting. But these are not long-term volunteers and we wish to have some more.”

They do the sorting of the plastic at their own homes where they also carry out data entry on the amount of rubbish they collect for recycling.

Their organisation believes in leading by example and always making sure that they show it by frequently visiting their recycle bins and collecting plastic waste. Plastics are to be segregated and recycled to keep our environment clean which is everyone's responsibility.

According to Mata’utia, if no one does this no one else will and this is done to save the ocean and the environment for the next generation.

They have reached out to the rest of Falealili No. 2 and intend to share their work with nearby constituencies closer to the town area and continue to work together to save Samoa's environment.