More than $20,000 has been paid out with over 400,000 empty cans and plastic bottles collected in the Return and Pay drive that started in April.

Another drive was held on Saturday, next to Vailima Brewery Limited in Vaitele.

The Samoa Tokelau Association of Recycles, a local non-government organisation (NGO), has been driving the initiative to encourage people to recycle plastic bottles and cans instead of throwing them away.

“Our goal is to reduce waste and to try and promote sustainable waste management,” said Lynn, the Vice President of the association.

The “Return and Pay” program is a partnership between the STAR and Coca-Cola. The soft drink producers take the collected bottles and cans to be recycled into new beverage containers.

“People bring in their bottles and cans, and we count them manually, one by one,” Lynn explained. “Each item is worth five sene, and whoever brings in the most gets the most.”

The group only accepts clean beverage bottles and aluminium cans, not bottles that contain chemicals or e-waste.

Individuals, youth groups, and Sunday school teams brought in their collections on Saturday. Regular participants include the Methodist Youth of Matafele and the Methodist Youth of Vailele. For this event, the Anglican Sunday School also joined.

Since the “Return and Pay” program began in April, the NGO has held four major events at its usual venues, collecting nearly 400,000 bottles and cans in total.

“This is the first time we’ve filled up this much at this venue,” Lynn said proudly. “We already have 50 big bags filled with both plastics and cans.” Each bag holds around 1,300 bottles on average.

The NGO asks people to clean and separate their bottles and cans before bringing them in. 

The organisation promotes its events on Facebook and through radio shows, which are held every two or three Fridays.

STAR has only five main members, all volunteers. For the Vaitele event, they also invited a group of church youths to help sort and count bottles and cans.

“We give them a small payment to come and help us,” Lynn said. “It’s also a way to teach them the importance of recycling and segregation.”

The event ran from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, though the team started setting up early around 8:00 am. They usually stop accepting new items by 12:30 pm.

The NGO has visited landfills in the past, but does not collect waste directly from there. “We’ve been to the landfill many times,” Lynn said. “But as an NGO, our capacity is small. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) handles general waste collection.”

Instead, the association focuses on teaching people to sort waste at home.

“Please don’t put all your waste in one bag,” Lynn urged. “There are items in your household that can be recycled instead of going to the landfill.”

Through these events, the Samoa Tokelau Association of Recycles hopes to reduce the pressure on Samoa’s landfill and protect the environment.

“We try our best to find ways to achieve our goals,” Lynn said. “We want to be a responsible recycler and promote responsible waste management.”

Over 50 big bags of bottles and cans had been collected on Saturday.