Fiji villagers reject ‘Pacific ashtray’ plan
An Australian billionaire’s plan to burn rubbish for energy in Fiji amounts to “waste colonialism” and risks spoiling a “beach paradise,” villagers and the Pacific nation’s UN ambassador said.
Traditional landowner Inoke Tora boarded a bus to the capital Suva on Tuesday with a petition from villagers opposing the $630-million waste-to-energy incinerator, which is forecast to consume 900,000 tons of nonrecyclable rubbish each year.
The fashion entrepreneur behind the Paris-born Kookai label and an Australian billionaire who made his fortune in rubbish disposal want to build a port and waste incinerator within 15 kilometers (nine miles) of Fiji’s tourism gateway Nadi.
The Australian-based duo of Ian Malouf and Rob Cromb have told Fiji’s government the project could meet 40 percent of the small nation’s electricity needs, cutting its reliance on diesel.
However, an environmental impact statement lodged by their company TNG shows it would also raise Fiji’s national emissions by 25 percent.
Residents say the emissions will spoil Fiji’s eco-tourism reputation and pose a safety risk with hotels and schools nearby.
“There are hundreds of people living in villages in this place and they fish each day, eat fresh crabs. They call that beach paradise,” Tora told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by telephone on his way to petition Fiji’s prime minister.
“The government should stop this.”
Fiji’s ambassador to the United Nations, Filipo Tarakinikini, wrote on social media on Monday that the Vuda coast north of Nadi “must not become the Pacific’s ashtray.”
Risk to human health
Ash residue and dioxins would contaminate the food chain, Tarakinikini warned, likening the plan to send up to 700,000 tons of nonrecyclable rubbish to Fiji each year to “waste colonialism.”
“Dial-a-Dump” founder Malouf spent seven years trying to get a similar waste-to-energy incinerator approved in Sydney before it was rejected as a risk to human health in 2018, planning and court documents show.
Malouf’s business partner Cromb, who bought the Paris fashion label Kookai in 2017, said he maintains business links to Fiji, where he was born, because Kookai manufactures clothes there.
Cromb has held community meetings with villagers as the incinerator proposal spurs a backlash.
“There are genuine concerns around environmental safety, transparency, and the scale of the proposal and those concerns are valid and are being taken seriously,” Cromb said in a statement sent to AFP.
“By diverting waste from landfill where it would otherwise produce methane, a significantly more potent greenhouse gas and reducing reliance on fossil fuel-based energy sources, energy-from-waste can contribute to broader life cycle emissions benefits,” he said.
“It is not a project intended to import waste from overseas,” he added.
Convention breach
However, the plan for a port and incinerator lodged with Fiji’s government showed it would feed in local waste as well as waste shipped from Australia and across the region.
Opponents have told the government it would be a breach of a 1998 convention signed by Australia to ship hazardous waste to a Pacific island country.
Fiji’s Tourism Minister Vilame Gavoka said tourism across Nadi could be jeopardized by the incinerator.
“Such facilities in other countries are located away from businesses and densely populated areas,” his office said.
And Fiji’s permanent secretary for environment and climate change, Michael Sivendra, told AFP the project is under review.
Resident Eremasi Matanatabu, a food company manager, said concern over building a waste business in the bay where the first Fijians arrived to shore is widespread.
“It will stick out like a big sore thumb,” he said.
