GVI Expands Silana Village Waste Management Initiative

Dawasamu, Fiji Hub Achievement Report Objective: Community Sustainability (waste management and income generation)April, 2014

Since the August 2013 Waste Management Achievement Report, Silana Village has made impressive progress towards managing waste more responsibly. The village has now formed the Clean Silana Committee, started a recycling program, and many families now generate significant income by upcycling waste.

The need to improve waste management practices was evident early on in GVI's involvement with Silana Village. Previously, the primary method of dealing with waste was open burning within the village; often only a few steps away from homes. The negative effects of burning garbage are exacerbated by the area's high level of humidity. Moist garbage smoulders slowly, resulting in prolonged exposure to lingering toxic smoke.

In order to promote more sustainable waste management practices, GVI started by hosting bi-weekly awareness presentations on topics such as: recycling, composting, upcycling, and climate change. With overwhelming interest from the local community, GVI installed three compost bins, as well as two tin can collection bags. These initiatives continue to divert waste away from the burn pits and have started to provide nutrient rich soil for use in the plantations.

With the success of the Silana’s initial waste management initiatives, GVI decided to host a waste 1

Figure 1- Villagers show off Waste Management training certificates Figure 2- A participatory approach

management workshop with key members of the community. The goal was to train and empower community

members to make positive, long lasting changes to the way the village handles waste. The workshop started with a presentation on waste management issues in a global and local context, followed by detailed explanation of the three R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. During the workshop, members of the community worked in groups to complete a series discussion based tasks designed to make the link between Silana and the information delivered through the training presentations. This allowed the group to use their knowledge to identify the key waste management issues faced in the village and also highlighted possible solutions. To conclude the training, villagers were provided with cameras and asked to go around Silana in groups photographing examples of proper and improper waste management practices. After collating their images the groups then presented their findings to the workshop. This photography exercise proved to be a successful method for verifying understanding of workshop content and further reinforced the need to manage water sustainably in the village.

The information presented to the community members during the workshop, and the subsequent discussion on waste management in Silana culminated in the founding of the Clean Silana Committee. This committee is comprised of thirteen key community members who are responsible for assessing waste management in Silana, identifying issues, and improving waste management practices within the village. Each committee member is responsible for conveying information to three households, thus the dialogue between GVI and the Clean Silana Committee is disseminated to the entire village. The committee has created an action plan, set out clear and measurable goals and paired them with the corresponding actions to achieve each goal. The Clean Silana Committee meets on a monthly basis to review the action plan and prioritize activities. The monthly meetings are used as an open forum to discuss issues, and a venue to present new ideas and information.

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Figure 3- One of the completed recycling points in Silana Village

The Clean Silana Committee’s most recent initiative is a home recycling campaign. Each household is being encouraged to separate waste at home and deposit it in a village recycling point. The aim is to further discourage waste burning and reduce dumping in the village. To support this ongoing initiative, GVI has constructed a recycling point in the village to collect: paper, cardboard, tins, aluminium, glass, and plastic, with further of such facilities currently under construction. Items from the recycling point are first reused (plastic bags taken to town when shopping, cardboard used for storage boxes) or upcycled into various items describe below. Any remaining recyclables are transported to facilities in Suva, with the exchange of tin and plastic bottles generating revenue for the village.

Given Silana’s isolation from recycling facilities (which are located in Suva City, a two hour drive away) emphasis has been placed on upcycling. Creating useful items out of waste products reduces the environmental toll of transporting recyclables to Suva. Local women were initially trained to create purses from plastic wrappers, which are now being sold to visitors and tourists, and have earned the local community upwards of $1500. The income earned from waste products has sparked a paradigm shift; villagers increasingly view wrappers, empty bottles, and tins as assets rather than waste items.

During the most recent Clean Silana Committee meeting, members created change purses, self-watering planters, brooms, and roofing tiles all from discarded plastic bottles.

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Figure 5 - Upcycled broom Figure 4 - A member of the woman’s group works on creating an upcycled purse from

plastic packaging

Initiatives spearheaded by the Clean Silana Committee have made Silana a healthier and cleaner place to live. GVI will continue to provide waste management information and resources to the committee, promoting the sustainability of this proactive community. Through this ongoing support, the committee can continue to work towards their waste management action plan and act as an example of the best practice for the Dawasamu District. Awareness of the waste management initiatives introduced in SIlana has already disseminated through to surrounding villages and as a result GVI has been approached about helping to establish similar schemes in neighbouring villages. This presents an exciting opportunity to have a positive impact on the waste management practices of the whole district over the coming months.

To find out more about our programs in Fiji please visit

www.gvi.co.uk

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