The Real Rubbish News - October 2025 - Kiribati Solid Waste Management Programme
- admin654135
- Nov 19
- 9 min read
Kiritimati Island Dumpsite Improvements
Kiritimati Island (Christmas Island) is the world's largest atoll by land area, and is just north of the equator, south of Hawaii. It has a population of around 8,000 people, and is targeted as a development hub by the Government. In the last few years, more business has opened up, and the island is now getting around six ship visits a year, with four of those coming from the south and Fiji, via Tarawa. In a nutshell, this means more rubbish. As the KSWMP achieves some of its goals on South Tarawa, we have been able to give some attention to Kiritimati.
Two of the team visited in December 2024, and as a result of that visit, a Green Bag waste collection has got off the ground, and preparations made to start the Kaoki Maange recycling system for cans, bottles and batteries. But the biggest problem there has been the dumpsite, an open area near two schools, with unrestricted access and very frequently set on fire. This results in a public health hazard as well as an environmental one, as the school children and teachers breath dioxins and other nasty chemicals. So KSWMP has set out to do something about this. Kiritimati Island stakeholders in local government had already identified a better location for a new dumpsite, working with the local branch of ECD. KSWMP has mapped this, carried out an assessment, and developed a plan to create an Interim Controlled Dumpsite, which will have a 24 hour watchman, and a gateway, and containment for waste.
Construction took place through September, resulting in dumpsite of 60 x 47m x 2.5 metres deep, resulting from a one metre excavation providing the sand for a 1.5m bund containment wall. The result gives around 7,000m³ of space, which should give around 5-6 years dumpsite space at current rates. A traditional hut – a Buia – with a small solar system has been placed at the gateway to control access. The Official Opening took place on Friday 3rd October.
It is then hoped that once we have a new landfill wall design (see other story, p.g. 3) a new landfill wall can be built that encloses the site, as part of a much larger landfill site, that might be sized to meet some 20 years or so of landfill capacity. The development of this simple Interim Controlled Dumpsite will also provide experience and costs to build similar dumpsites for outer islands across Kiribati, where the likelihood of building an engineered landfill in the medium term is remote. As outer islands across the Pacific are now struggling with their own waste issues, there is real potential to create a simple design that, whilst not ideal, is a vast improvement on current practises where 'waste ground' or mangroves - or beaches - are used upon which to dump rubbish.
Vehicles, laptops & phones added to the Kaoki Maange recycling system
The Government of Kiribati has recently agreed to add cars, small buses (under 20 seats) light trucks (under 5 tonne GVW) laptops and phones to the Schedule of items covered by the Kaoki Maange deposit/refund recycling system. Cars, small buses and trucks will soon pay $1,000 at import in a deposit, whilst people giving up relevant vehicles for recycling will get $900 back. The extra $100 is the Handling Fee paid to the System Operator, and this will pay the cost of collection, so everyone gets a 'free' collection (with caveats as to location and accessibility). These End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV(ELVs) can then be taken to the new Materials Recovery Facility in Betio, where they will be stripped of usable spare parts to be sold out to keep other vehicles on the road. The remaining carcass will be crushed and baled for export. The current MML operation, funded by MFAT, will pass over all the equipment to do this once it has completed its work.
The laptops pay $42 at import and get $40 refund, and phones $12 & $10, and these will go to the e-waste collection point for packing for export; but it will take quite some time to fill a container with these items. In the meantime, other e-waste can be processed and join the shipment to speed things up, but these other items will not attract refunds.
The MRF shed is currently being fitted out with racking system that will allow the parts to be stored inside in an orderly way so as to make it easier for resale. This should allow local mechanics easier access to spare parts, and so fix more cars than currently, as parts are hard to get and expensive; this is a vital part of the plan, namely: reuse.
Any vehicle that was running and on the road, registered, at the time the new Regulation is signed into law will be eligible for a refund, as the new imports' deposits will be funding those refunds. An ELV survey has just been completed with the World Bank funding support, so that we know where all (or most!) of the car wrecks are already, thus which will NOT be eligible for refund. This survey shows us that, as of the end of August, there are 522 ELVs that the owners want removed, and another 822 that the owners say they want to keep - for spares, or because they hope to repair them. Another 461 ELVs the owners are not sure about giving it up for recycling (some of this will be because the owner may not be around to give a definitive answer). None of these ELVs will be eligible for a refund, unless they have been fixed and out back on the road. One of the criteria for refund on an ELV will be to show that it was on the road and registered AFTER the regulation came into force. The implication of the above figures is that ideally the KSWMP would fund the $100 Handling Fee to the new System Operator and so give the owners a free collection of their ineligible ELV. This would kick-start the system and get ELVs flowing in, and scrap metal exports moving. Any spare parts recovered can for resale to kick-off the spare parts sales.
These are measures that were originally envisaged at the time of the creation of the Kaoki Maange legislation in 2004, and it is great to see these plans finally coming to fruition.
Landfill walls Consultancy under way
We have finally got the landfill wall design consultancy under way. This consultancy is funded under the GEF ISLANDS programme of activities managed by SPREP, and the primary aim is to produce a generic wall design for use in landfill extensions in an atoll environment. Tarawa has three landfills, built into the lagoon sand-flats. Careful study since 2011 has shown that the pollution generated by these landfills is significantly less than might be expected, given the quality of wall construction and that they have no conventional landfill liner, as would normally be placed in the bottom of landfills. But the landfill base is below mean sea-level, and if they had a liner, where would that water - rain - go? There is no where for leachate treatment ponds, and anyway, when one builds a wall to enclose an area of lagoon sand-flat it fills with water to MSL or thereabouts. Careful study has shown that the calcium carbonate sand is actually acting as a leachate treatment medium (this has been used in conventional landfill in Europe for this purpose) and allowing the water inside to interact slowly with the lagoon is a vital requirement to managing the landfill successfully.
The consultant - Tonkin+Taylor NZ, has been given the brief to design a landfill wall that will fulfil these conditions, now we know what is going on. A generic wall design will give us a generic cost estimate which can be then used for some serious budgeting to get new landfills built in Tarawa. Two of the three landfills are now full to the brim, and the third will last maybe four years if we are lucky, now it is taking most of the waste. The results of this consultancy are also hoped to help feed into specific site designs at other atoll locations, potentially in other Pacific atoll locations.
PV system & Toilet block complete Betio MRF
Our solar power system is finally installed and up and running at the Betio Materials Recovery Facility. It is a 40 kWp system, typically delivering around 30kW through the middle of the day, which will be enough to power up all our existing baling presses, plus a big new scrap baler that we hope to procure soon and install in 2026. the system is grid connected, so no batteries, and makes far more electricity in a day that the MRF uses, so it is in fact a little power station in the middle of Betio, feeding into the most heavily loaded transformer in the country, helping out the power system too!
The system uses twenty two 2kW microinverters, with one inverter running off either two or three solar modules, and mounted under the module. All wiring is factory made, so it is plug-and-play, which is a major advantage in the harsh marine conditions of Tarawa. This is believed to be the first micro-inverter system in Kiribati, and was chosen partially because this technology has greater resilience potential than where a single larger inverter is used. Indeed, one inverter failed after a month, but it is a simple matter to swap it out with the five spare inverters that came with the package. the system is monitored via the internet through an on-site router and connection.
In addition, we have also completed the toilet block which has two toilets and one cubicle with a shower, and is wheel-chair accessible if the need arose. As part of our approach to improving standards the KSWMP felt it was important to be able to give staff the ability to shower after working on scrap metal processing and car wrecking, as will be the case soon.
Butaritari Dumpsite
As part of the 2025 activities, the Kiribati Solid Waste Management Programme (KSWMP) is expanding support to Outer Islands for the establishment of proper waste collection and disposal systems. A key first step is the identification and preparation of appropriate sites for controlled dumpsites, in close consultation with Island Councils and other stakeholders. The creation of these simple, contained dumpsite areas is critical to laying the foundation for sustainable waste collection services in these communities. The team recently returned from Butaritari Atoll after completing a mission to identify a suitable site for a new dumpsite. The delegation included officials from the Lands Management Division, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and two representatives from the KSWMP.
The mission was successful, with three potential sites assessed and one final site selected in Antekana Village. During the visit, the team conducted an environmental site assessment and held a community consultation to ensure the proposed site is appropriate and accepted by the community.
Key findings from the consultation include that community members expressed strong support for establishing the dumpsite in Antekana. Residents were optimistic, noting that the new dumpsite would help keep Butaritari clean and reduce rubbish along roadsides in the ocean. Community members are also eager to have a waste collection system in place.
Butaritari Island is already selling green bags, and people are already using them for waste containment, which will make it easier for a waste collection system to be run by the Councils once the dumpsite is built. The Council could use its own big truck and run up and down the island once a week to collect green bags.
To support the development of the dumpsite, KSWMP has initiated discussions with the China Railway First Group, the company currently upgrading the Butaritari road. The team requested potential collaboration, given the company’s access to heavy machinery essential for dumpsite construction. The company has agreed to support the establishment of the dumpsite once the necessary approvals have been obtained.
Staff Changes at KSWMP
The Programme Manager (PM) for the Kiribati Solid Waste Management Programme is leaving the Team after three years. Cuts to the budget have meant that there is no longer funding for an international hire at the Programme Manager position. In addition, Compliance Officer Gerdi Raimon has been appointed to the permanent position of Environmental Impact Assessment Officer at the Ministry, and she will also be leaving in October. These are both member of the core team of four, the others being Waste Disposal Officer Harry Langley, who directed the landfill rehabilitation work and the construction of the new MRF; and Awareness Officer Temangnga Tekonnang, who has driven the public campaign work to change behaviours on waste on Tarawa. In addition, our Schools Liaison Officer Toromon Tarati has told us he will leave at the end of the year. No decisions have yet been taken regarding new appointments.
PM Alice Leney has previously worked in Kiribati setting up the deposit/refund Kaoki Maange recycling system twenty years ago, and the Green Bag household waste collection system twelve years ago, so is no stranger to Kiribati. Alice will be returning to his home in New Zealand, but no doubt will still be a regular visitor to Kiribati in the future. Meanwhile, the programme still has a nominal two years to run.
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