Tonga Solid Waste
Management Project
& ‘Aloua Ma’a Tonga
Lessons to date in
Community Management
Description of Project
9 New
landfill at Tapuhia
9Weekly waste collection
service for each household
in Tongatapu
9New legislation
9New Waste Authority
9Community Change
Project Partners
9 ‘Aloua Ma’a Tonga - community facilitation
9 Tongan Environmental Community Action Network
(TECAN) - Town and District Officers and community
leaders
9 Tonga Trust - community and school dramas
Community Involvement
9ESSENTIAL to success of Project
9Need every business and household to
manage their waste properly.
9Participate in recycling, waste collection,
composting. Need everyone to stop
littering, dumping and burning. Also
need them to pay the fee!
CASE STUDY 1 - Recycling
Cages
9Consultation supported
recycling depots
9Cages designed
9EOI process for collection
contract
9Groups to register interest
as depot caretakers
Recycling Cages
9 150 depots
established, collecting
steel cans and
aluminium cans.
Plastics to commence
this year
9 Enthusiastic
community support
.
Kilograms
Recycling in Tonga 2006
16000
14000
14059
12000
10000
ALUMINIUM CANS (Kg)
8000
6000
STEEL CANS (Kg)
6441
4000
2056
284
NOVEMBER
OCTOBER
1040
2406
1046
545
1055
968
STEEL CANS (Kg)
ALUMINIUM CANS (Kg)
TOTAL TO DATE
Month
299
SEPTEMBER
778
AUGUST
405
JULY
355
JUNE
712
2504
742
FEBRUARY
712
MAY
0
1932
932
JANUARY
2000
838
DECEMBER
891
6.441 tonnes of aluminium cans = over 425,000 cans
That’s over 34 cans per household!
Monitoring Survey Results
9 Recently completed survey to find out which
depots are doing well, and why
9 The key to success seems to be WHO is
looking after the cages, and HOW they are
encouraging use
9 The more active the group, the better the
results, as members get behind the initiative
Survey Results (cont)
9 Some outstanding examples - an 86 year
old man at Holonga collecting cans from
houses and roadsides has filled cages
many times
9 Found the greatest motivator is keeping
houses and villages clean, with someone
from community consistently pushing this
message within local community
Survey Results (cont)
• Needs people at grass roots level to
encourage and motivate, with support
from broader awareness campaign.
• The position of cages not so important.
Unless there is an active and motivated
caretaker, the cages won’t capture many
materials
CASE STUDY 2 - Waste
Collection Fee
9New waste collection service - $10 per
household per month
9How to get people to pay this new fee?
9Can’t cut off the service (counter
productive)
9Legislation there so charge is
compulsory, but collecting the $ is the
challenge
Women’s Committees
9 Women’s committee in each village to collect
money from each house, keeping 10%
commission
9 They know the people and can exert “moral
pressure”
9 Autonomous in how to collect and use the fee
9 Convincing people within own communities to
take responsibility for a clean environment
The Future
•Women’s
committees
leading the way
•The next
generation to
grow up with
new messages
and new
behaviours
MALO AU PITO