Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has for the first time tied Fiji’s push to improve recycling directly to job creation and economic protection, announcing new national policy moves at the VAKA Forum in Suva as the government prepares a suite of waste-management reforms.
Speaking at the Pacific Recycling Foundation–hosted event, Rabuka warned that poor waste handling threatens public health, the environment and key sectors such as tourism, and urged a shift in mindset so waste is treated as recyclable material rather than rubbish. “We must address waste management in collaboration right across our society with other sectors. The government must provide a policy framework and leadership. Businesses must recognize that every product placed in the local market carries an environmental responsibility,” he said.
Rabuka said the government is developing a national waste management strategy designed to reduce waste, increase recycling and improve disposal systems across Fiji. In a concrete step toward stronger enforcement, he confirmed amendments to the Litter Act are being prepared by the Ministry of Environment and will be tabled in Parliament to tighten accountability. The Prime Minister also announced plans for container-deposit regulations that would see beverage containers carry a refundable deposit that consumers can reclaim when bottles are returned to designated collection points.
Those announcements mark a shift from advocacy and pilot projects toward formal policy actions. The VAKA Forum—whose name stands for Voices, Alliances, Knowledge and Action—has been convening policymakers, municipal leaders and grassroots recyclers; Rabuka used the platform to acknowledge the role of community groups in waste collection and recycling. The Pacific Recycling Foundation’s founder, Amitesh Deo, told delegates the solutions presented at the forum are grounded in research and lived experience, and can be trialled as sustainable business models that create both environmental and economic benefits. “Our discussions today are not just going to be around the journey that we have taken; it’s not a reflection only, but what we want to present today here to the group is a solution based on lived experiences,” Deo said.
The Prime Minister’s comments build on a string of recent local initiatives aimed at improving waste services and diverting material from landfills. In December, government-backed municipal upgrades added six new nine-tonne garbage compactor trucks to town fleets, and private-sector examples such as Tanoa Plaza Hotel in Suva were highlighted for diverting significant tonnages of recyclables from the Naboro landfill. Organisers of the VAKA Forum and waste-sector advocates say such examples demonstrate where policy and practice can be scaled.
What is new in this development is the government’s explicit commitment to legislate and introduce a national strategy and deposit-return scheme, with the Ministry of Environment actively preparing Litter Act amendments for parliamentary consideration. If enacted, those measures would create a statutory framework for enforcement and financial incentives for consumers to return containers—steps campaigners argue are necessary to reduce landfill dependency and to grow local recycling enterprises and jobs.
The announcements at VAKA signal collaboration between policymakers and grassroots recyclers, and set a timetable expectation: the Ministry of Environment will finalise and table the proposed legal changes in Parliament. Developers of recycling programs and municipal authorities will be watching closely to see whether the new regulations and the strategy are matched by implementation funding, collection infrastructure and market support needed to turn policy commitments into job-creating, sustainable recycling operations.
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