Empowering Youths to contribute to a cleaner future

Abstract

As part of the Greening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) initiative, young people have been actively involved in waste audits, and monitoring waste collected across CHOGM venues. This provides insights into the source, types and quantities of waste generated during CHOGM to help plan for effective waste management strategies for the future. SPREP through the Australian Government funded, Pacific Ocean Litter Project #POLP is working together with Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Samoa (MNRE) to ensure a more sustainable and environmentally friendly Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting #CHOGM, currently underway in Samoa. This includes raising public education and awareness of plastic pollution and the single-use plastic issue in Samoa as well as provisions of waste and skip bins for proper waste segregation, collection and transportation for proper waste management including waste audits and monitoring.