“From the first day of attendance of the Enviro Conference on Circular Economy, it was very inspiring to hear and see that big countries like Europe and Australia are doing their part in Waste Management. Especially for us SIDs and LDCs experiencing the impacts now. We are constantly looking for destinations to remove the different waste streams we have on the island, and we are very grateful for all the ongoing assistance.

A circular economy approach is very important, and in order to see the full effect of it, we have to allow every sector to be included in the process. Everyone plays a role from allowing products to come to the island, right down to reducing, reusing, and repurposing these products whether it's shipping overseas or processing in country.

For Niue, we will be opening our first Recycling Center in the next few months, and one of the areas we have looked at is installing an Op Shop within the center. This initiative will help reduce some waste streams ending up in the Landfill. As a saying we all know of that goes "one man’s waste, is another man’s treasure". We will also be looking at ways to reprocess these waste streams in country”

Mr Daniel Makaia
Technical Advisor - Waste Management
Department of Environment
Niue