Fiji is integrating faith-based organizations into its waste management strategy with a pilot recycling project at a Suva parish, led by the Pacific Recycling Foundation in partnership with the Suva City Council and the Catholic Church.

The initiative tackles plastic waste by fostering community responsibility and behavioral change.

Archbishop Peter Loy Chong says recycling should be seen as a moral imperative, as environmental neglect directly impacts people and future generations.

“Caring for the environment, caring for our own lives, it’s something that, as the church teaches, is a moral imperative, something that we should do.”

Suva City Council, Acting Chief Executive, Tevita Boseiwaqa highlighted that they spend millions annually on waste collection and disposal.

“Over $3 million a year, at one stage it has reached $5 million. And when we include other factors related to waste management, it reaches $6 million. Just to make sure that our environment is clean, to make sure that we live in a quality environment, because the quality of the environment that we live in determines the quality of our lives.”

Pacific Recycling Foundation Chief Executive Amitesh Deo says faith-based organizations are influential in changing mindsets, reducing stigma, and promoting recycling as a shared national responsibility.

“We should remove gimmicks around recycling. We should understand that recycling is, as the Archbishop said, a moral responsibility, but it’s also a human rights issue. And our environment right is actually our human right and it is then our responsibility to protect that.”

Pacific Ocean Litter Project is a seven-year regional initiative, funded by the Australian Government and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

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