The Samoa Recycling and Waste Management Association (S.R.W.M.A.) has opened its new recycling facility at Tafaigata to boost waste management in Samoa.

The recycling facility is funded by Japan with the official handing over ceremony done on Wednesday with the Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission Tsukada Kazuo, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment C.E.O. Frances Reupena-Brown and various stakeholders and members of the diplomatic corps in attendance.

The association was given a grant of SAT$477,097 in March this year provided to them under Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grass-Roots Human Security Projects (G.G.P). The facility will be utilised for processing recyclable wastes and storing of recycling machinery.

Mr. Kazuo said on Wednesday that the decision by Japan to fund the project was undertaken in recognition of the success achieved by the recycling association, which is the first in the Pacific Islands region to be established in 2017.

“Today’s handing over ceremony will seriously promote proper waste management systems and further raise public awareness across Samoa,” he said.

“Japan emphasises the importance of the 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)principle in the context of sustainable ocean and pledged our contribution under the Pacific Bond (KIZUNA) policy agreed with the Pacific Island Countries at the occasion of the Ninth Pacific Island Leaders Meeting (PALM9).

“In fact, funding of such project in collaboration with technical expertise provided by J-Prism II project, co-implemented by JICA and SPREP is a clear manifestation of Japan’s genuine commitment and contribution to promote waste collection and management activities."

According to Mr. Kazuo, the next step for the association will be to recycle plastics and glass locally with cooperation from Japan, the United States of America, United Kingdom and the United Nations Development Programme.

“We are very happy to welcome aid collaboration for waste management with like-minded countries and international organisations,” he said.

“I am confident that this project will enable the association to access resources to meet and execute its action plans in place.”

The President of S.R.W.M.A Marina Keil told the Samoa Observer in an emailed response on Thursday morning that she is happy with the facility finally opening.

"On behalf of S.R.W.M.A members I like to convey our sincere gratitude on the tremendous assistance from Japan Embassy in funding this well-needed facility that will be beneficial to Samoa's Waste management," she told the Samoa Observer.

"Having a proper facility to house waste we deal with will eliminate the possibilities of leaching hazardous residue to our soil, it will mean we can store our processed waste for export in a safe manner without worrying about any organic or insect contamination.

"We will utilise this building to process our plastic and glass waste recycling, and can't wait to see the magic that will go in this building once our machineries are installed."