After HMAS Canberra arrived from Australia, bringing with it two helicopters and more than 417 tonnes of equipment and supplies, the prime minister of Tonga, Siaosi Sovaleni, gave a speech thanking Australia.
“The [international] assistance brought just over 114,600 litres (of water] that came in plastic bottles meaning about 86,000 water bottles of 1.5 litres,” he said.
While the aid has been essential, it has left Tonga with a significant problem: what to do with the waste.
There is no recycling collection in Tonga, which means plastic waste ends up in landfill. The country's only rubbish tip has just four cells for storing rubbish, with each cell meant to be large enough to house at least 20 years' worth of waste. The second one is filling up fast.
This story is from the April 19, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the April 19, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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