Page 23 - IB January 2024

Environment Environment

Few guess that the role is actually a scientific one—a Single-use plastic, disposable nappies and plastic bags for
crossbreed between an anthropologist and an archeologist— ice blocks were banned from Kiribati’s supermarket shelves in
who studies human society and culture by what they consume 2019, and today, it’s rare to see any of these items as litter,
and discard. although disposable nappies, promoted as biodegradable, are
“Most people’s reaction when I tell them I’m a garbologist still a major component of Kiribati’s landfill.
is that they laugh… think that that’s a joke… and that tells a Leney says an interesting chemical reaction between
whole lot about people’s attitude towards garbage and yet we the landfill leachate (the liquid oozing from landfill waste)
have many people express gravely that waste is a problem. and the calcium carbonate coral sand of the landfill base,
“But a garbologist puts the people at the centre of the neutralises the leachate. Data collected by MELAD suggests a
problem because waste is a people problem,” Leney exclaims. fascinating nature-based solution to the problem of treating
In just over four decades since independence, the Kiribati landfill leachates.
people have moved from a subsistence lifestyle into a While the current landfills have about three more years
western-oriented one, necessitating waste management until they are completely full and become free land space,
legislation and the employment of garbologists like Alice Leney and his team are being tasked to build more landfills
Leney and his team of three young and enthusiastic to cater for the roughly more than 80,000 people on South
environmentalists. Together, they are helping change Kiribati Tarawa and Betio.
people’s behaviours about their consumption and waste Integral, however, to the success of the landfills is the
disposal. Green Bag system, a pre-paid garbage bag system operated
After the nation’s sole main road was upgraded in 2016, the through a private company, MOEL Trading Ltd, under a
importation of second hand cars from Japan boomed. But this contract with MELAD. Operating for more than 10 years, the
added to an already existing problem, disposal of end-of-life system provides a custom-made biodegradable garbage bags
vehicles (ELV). (that now cost $0.40 a piece), the price of which goes directly
Second hand cars imported from Japan to Kiribati towards the collection services for dumping in any of the
typically have a life span of less than a decade due to their three landfills in South Tarawa.
sophisticated automotive service requirements, compounded Having strong waste management systems in place has
by the highly corrosive conditions of an atoll island. The result made a big impact on Kiribati’s fragile atoll environment
is an ugly landscape of wrecked cars dotted across the length but this alone is not the answer to Kiribati’s ongoing waste
of South Tarawa from Bonriki in the east, to Betio in the far problem, specifically with plastic pollution. Despite the
west. These cars are made of multiple materials, including ban on single-use plastics, other products that are making
plastics. their way into Kiribati are still being packaged in plastic and
“Now what we want to do is include cars in the [Kaoki therefore the problem is still very much active.
Maange] system,” Leney added. He points out that a car baler And as more people continue to illegally dump their
machine has been ‘eating’ cars since the beginning of the rubbish into the ocean, MELAD through its Environment and
year. Conservation Division will continue to innovate new ideas that
The Kiribati Ferrous Scrap Waste project, another New will help shape people’s mentality.
Zealand-funded project which is supported by MELAD, “This is our newest clean-up campaign—Ara BikeMarawa
has surveyed a total of 4429 car wrecks in South Tarawa Rerei—so what we are trying to do is to get across to people
alone. The project’s website provides an up-to-date tally of that the beach and the sea is intimately linked and that there
recovered ferrous materials which currently stands at 2189 is some sort of ecological awareness there, so that when they
ELVs removed and 9 shipwrecks ready to be collected. dump their garbage into their buibui (a traditional coastal
“What we want to do is to put a deposit on a car when it protection mechanism where leaves, sticks and branches
comes in… so that you can get a refund… so that wrecked are compacted to form a solid structure, like a seawall, that
car sitting in your yard is worth money,” Leney explains. An will help dissipate the strength of waves when it reaches the
addition to the existing deposit and refund legislation under beach), they will know that that garbage will certainly affect
the Special Fund (Waste Materials Recovery) Act 2004, which our marine environment, and in turn affect us,the people,”
will require importers of cars to pay a deposit on arrival to Leney said.
cover vehicle scrapping costs. In the Kiribati vernacular, ‘bike’ means beach while
But whatever waste that can’t be recovered and sent off for ‘marawa’ means sea/ocean and ‘rerei’ is something that is
processing overseas ends up in a landfill, and South Tarawa’s nice or beautiful, so in essence the campaign name is ‘Our
three main landfills, two in the South Tarawa municipality Beautiful Beach’.
and the third in the Betio municipality, have just received an “Back when we did the Kaoki Maange, we branded
overdue ‘facelift’. everything with Kiribati Te Boboto because that is the
A new 12-tonne wheel loader funded by New Zealand, ultimate goal we are trying to achieve – to make Kiribati
has seen the rubbish in these landfills properly compacted, beautiful, so even this [Ara Bikemarawa Rerei] we will brand
effectively extending its capacity to operate for a few more it on the top with Kiribati Te Boboto… what we’re trying to do
years and in the process, creating land that can be used for with this is actually to get people to have some pride in their
non-residential purposes. beaches,” Leney said.

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