The Real Rubbish News - May 2025 - Kiribati Solid Waste Management Programme

New Materials Recovery Facility Building Completed

The new Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) building is now operational, and the existing recycling operations of the 'Kaoki Maange' Container Deposit Scheme (that recycles aluminium cans and lead acid batteries) has moved into its new home, which includes brand new press to bale PET bottles. This is the result of a two-year effort that started in May 2023. The building is a 300 sq m steel building of a coastal environment specification, prefabricated in Australia and shipped to Kiribati last year. The entire MRF yard area is on 0.6 hectares of the old Betio Landfill, with another 0.8 hectares being allocated to the Kiribati Ports Authority (KPA) shipping container parking yard. The redevelopment of the original 2.3 hectare Betio landfill site has left 0.8 hectares as active landfill. The footprint of the building under the 300m² concrete slab was completely dug out of the existing waste and back-filled with reef-mud, sand and concrete demolition waste over a year, so giving a solid foundation to the building. The resulting MRF and KPA yard has some of the highest land on Tarawa at around 3.3m above MSL, and is certainly the highest land in Betio.

The new shed accommodates the existing recycling system, plus will also act as the storage area for parts stripped from car wrecks once the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) recycling operations start. A significant part of the sustainable commercial model for the ELV recycling is to recover parts for resale, and keep more cars going, as many cars die in Kiribati from want of spare parts. The shed also has a 40m² area for maintenance of all the heavy equipment used as part of the waste management system, which comprise two Green Bag garbage collection trucks; a 12 tonne Wheel Loader for landfill operations; plus a car baling machine, two excavators, one vehicle recovery truck and one crane truck, and two 4WD forklift trucks for the ELV recycling system. The maintenance area includes an inspection pit built into the floor of the

MRF shed, so making work on the underside of vehicles much easier. A variety of tools and workshop equipment was purchased a year ago and shipped to Tarawa, so that the workshop is very quickly becoming functional.

The old recycling yard MRF was in a site next to the KPA, and had been there for 20 years, but it was always known that one day the port expansion would require it to move. The old shed was an open-ended half-round barn about one quarter the size of the new one. In 2021 Cabinet mandated that the recycling operations must move, and when the KSWMP commenced in late 2022 planning started to create the new site on the Betio landfill. After two years of sustained effort and major procurements, the new MRF and associated building is now complete. The large remaining task is to install the 40kWp grid-tied solar power system on the roof in May or June, which will make the entire facility 'carbon negative' as it will produce more electricity than it will use. The building was supplied and constructed by a local company; the cost of the shed, tools and the solar system has come in at just under a half-million Australian dollars.

E-waste training

A two-day training Programme on e-waste management was held from 31st March to 1st April 2025 at the newly established Material Recovery Facility (MRF) shed in Betio. The training was facilitated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) through the PacWastePlus Project and coordinated locally by the Kiribati Solid Waste Management Programme.

The training brought together 10 participants representing key stakeholders involved in the handling and disposal of various types of electronic waste. The Programme included both theoretical and hands-on components, focusing on the proper management of common e-waste items such as laptops, CPUs, printers, and DVD players. This was delivered by two expert trainers from the Australia New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP) and The Recycling Group Limited (RGL), organisations engaged under the PacWastePlus project to deliver competency-based training aimed at establishing best-practice procedures for e-waste management across participating Pacific Island countries.

This training is expected to significantly enhance our knowledge and skills in managing e-waste effectively, thereby contributing to reduced environmental pollution and promoting a cleaner and more sustainable future for Kiribati.

New Zealand Volunteer's Engineering Assistance

We at KSWMP have been blessed to receive the help of Mike Hamilton, a retired engineer from New Zealand under the NZ VSA programme. Mike arrived just at the right time after our new recycling shed was completed, and immediately set to work to build work benches into one corner of the building as part of the workshop area to maintain heavy equipment. Regular maintenance is an absolutely essential part of good waste management systems, as the equipment gets a very hard time. We already had tools on hand imported from NZ last year, some donated by the NZ 'Menz Shed' programme, and also a second-hand metal-working lathe to assist with making parts and repairs. We also now have the capacity to repair hydraulic hoses, which has been a regular problem until now. Mike has planned out the workshop area, then built the benches and set up the tools in easily accessible places above and below the benches. He has also commissioned our new PET baling press ready for crushing plastic bottles. Mike's cheerful demeanour and hard work - not to mention his wide range of skills - has quickly made him a valuable member of our team, as no problem seems to be too hard for this guy to fix!