Samoa Stationery and Books and Ford Hyundai Samoa have joined forces to promote the recycling of e-waste with the automobile seller donating a Ford Ranger truck to collect waste.

Ford Hyundai is the latest partner to join the S.S.A.B. partnership in its effort to reduce e-waste in Samoa.

The S.S.A.B. currently has partnerships with Hewlett Packard (New Zealand) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. 

Ford Hyundai technician Letava Taeleipu said the company is happy to assist the S.S.A.B. to contribute to a great cause.

“On behalf of our country manager Simon Fruean and our team, we would like to express our sincere thanks for the invitation to be part of this great cause,” said Ms. Taeleipu. “We greatly encourage and support the partnership because we know it is for a great cause and it will bring a positive impact to our environment and also human health.

“We are happy to assist in any way that we can for a cleaner and better Samoa. 

“We have provided a project vehicle to help S.S.A.B. with collecting all the e-waste products.”

The e-waste collection programme led by the company is called “H.P. Take Back Program” which is led by the S.S.A.B. Operations Manager Nancy Vito Alefosio.

To mark the occasion the S.S.A.B. Chief Executive Officer, Tofilau Fiti Leung Wai, thanked the project partners at Thursday’s presentation and the e-waste advocates who helped source an appropriate vehicle. 

“I would like to acknowledge and thank the assistance of our new partner Ford Samoa for donating a beautiful Ford Ranger, such a beautiful vehicle to collect our discarded H.P. toners and cartridges,” said Tofilau. “We are very grateful […] to Simon […] and the team for your generosity and your trust for donating this beautiful vehicle to help with our mission and to properly dispose of our e-waste and to also minimise landfills in Samoa.

“Their hearts and passion are really to help our environment...at the end of the day we have to do our little bit to help our environment and we are very grateful this morning to continue this project here with the help of the Government and [Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E.)] and also H.P. New Zealand.”

The e-waste project was first launched three years ago in 2018.

Tofilau said her business is the only official H.P. agent in Samoa and is a consistent importer of electronics and electrical appliances.

“S.S.A.B. feels it is our responsibility in addressing and tackling e-waste issues in Samoa…in 2019 S.S.A.B. went into partnership with Hewlett Packard and M.N.R.E. to launch the H.P. Take Back Program,” she added. “This program is an excellent program, it allows S.S.A.B. with the help of the Government through M.N.R.E. to collect all discarded H.P. toners and H.P. cartridges from ministries, businesses, schools, churches, households and companies for proper recycling and disposal.”

Ms. Alefosio and Ms. Chadwick work closely with the M.N.R.E. to manage the H.P. bins which have been placed at “strategic locations” where large amounts of HP toners and ink is used, added Tofilau said.

“[W]e encountered a problem: we needed a vehicle to go and collect all these discarded ink and toner [cartridges].

“It’s a positive project because there is quite a lot of negative impact…[caused by] discarding all these computers [and toner and ink containers].

“So what S.S.A.B. has done with the help of M.N.R.E. and also H.P. we have collected all [this e-waste] and [H.P. ink and toner cartridges], palletized them and shipped them out of our country […] we need to do that to properly dispose of some of these e-wastes [and] we need partners.”

The vehicle will be on loan to the e-waste project for five days of each month and has so far collected and shipped out 24 pallets of e-waste.

Tofilau gave the assurance that she will ensure that the donated vehicle will not be abused and driven only for its intended purpose.

“We are very grateful for this partnership…this is all done with a heart for the Lord, to help our country,” she said.