"The presentations from the Regulators from Australia, New Zealand, and our Pacific Island neighbors during the first day of our Study Tour were interactive, and presenters explained in detail the various Container Deposit schemes and sustainable financing systems they have as well as the lessons learned and challenges in the design, development and implementation stages.

While our primary focus is environmentally sound management of recyclable bottles and aluminum cans, there are so many other types of recyclable materials that we should seriously start considering which will have serious implications on the environment.

It is also important to understand and appreciate that each country is socioeconomically unique, and hence not one type of product stewardship scheme will be the solution for another country.

In Fiji, we have embarked on developing the Container Deposit Regulation and will apply the best practices that we will learn from this study tour. Discussions with relevant actors of the Container Deposit System will be key so the scheme is viable in all aspects"