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Odyssey 14 April 2019

Buffa rubbish tip: waste in the open!

Although the Race for Water Foundation ACT programme consists in promoting solutions in order to manage plastic waste to transform it into energy, a deeper knowledge of local problems is still needed. That is why, on each of our stopovers, the ACT team meets with local key people of influence and visits waste treatment sites.

In Vanuatu there is one site, in Buffa, located on the outskirts of the capital Port Vila. It is the only waste site on the island of Efate (70,000 inhabitants).

Peter Charaf: “No inspection, or organisation is put in place. Environmental protection is not evident. The rubbish tip pollutes the surrounding areas (groundwaters and lagoon). Hospital waste is even dumped in bulk since the incinerator broke down: dangerous products, syringes, human organs… All this with about 100 waste pickers who live there and who collect what can be recycled; primarily plastic bottles which they sell”.

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