Four Years of Advocacy, Movement Building, and Recycling Justice
As the Pacific Recycling Foundation (PRF) commemorates its 4th Anniversary, the organisation reflects on four years of building a movement grounded in advocacy, grassroots empowerment, recycling justice, and collective environmental action across Fiji. For PRF, four years has never simply been about marking time, it represents four years of challenging stigma, amplifying grassroots voices, advancing recycling advocacy, and pushing for environmental justice across the country.
PRF was established on the understanding that Fiji’s growing waste management crisis required more than operational systems alone. While recycling efforts had long been driven through the operational work of Waste Recyclers Fiji Limited (WRFL), PRF was created to strengthen advocacy, public engagement, partnership building, and grassroots participation within the recycling sector.
Over the past four years, PRF has worked towards shifting recycling from being viewed solely as waste collection into a broader people-centred movement focused on environmental justice, dignity, inclusion, and community participation.
Recycling Rates Continue to Increase
This impact is reflected in the significant increase in recyclables recovered and diverted from landfills and the environment. Since PRF’s establishment, recyclable recovery has increased by nearly 18 percent over four years, with collections rising from approximately 16,900 tonnes over a five-year period prior to PRF’s formation to nearly 19,700 tonnes within four years. The increase highlights growing public participation and stronger engagement in recycling efforts across Fiji.
Expansion in Recyclable Materials
Over the years, the range of recyclables recovered has also expanded significantly, reflecting growing awareness that recycling extends beyond single-material collection systems. Materials recovered included cardboard, plastics, PET bottles, PET bottle lids, HDPE, preforms, resin, PET films, and scrap metals, demonstrating broader participation across multiple recyclable streams. However, PRF stresses that the true measure of progress extends beyond tonnage alone.
Strengthening Dignity and Recognition for CPRs
Collection Pillars of Recycling (CPRs) have remained central to PRF’s movement, despite many facing stigma while contributing significantly towards environmental protection across Fiji. Through CPR mapping initiatives, the CPR Alliance, and continued advocacy, PRF has worked towards strengthening dignity, visibility, and recognition for CPRs.
PRF’s 2022 CPR Mapping Exercise documented 1,059 CPRs across Fiji, including 472 women, 570 men, and 17 individuals from the LGBTQI+ community, with 675 relying fully on waste collection as their primary source of income.
Growing Participation of Women
PRF also acknowledged the changing role of women within Fiji’s recycling and waste management sector, an industry historically dominated by men. Across Waste Recyclers Fiji Limited (WRFL), PRF, and its diversification arms, women now represent close to one-third of the workforce and continue to take on leadership and operational roles across the organisation.
This includes women serving in management positions, co-leading PRF initiatives, operating forklifts, managing stock control systems, sorting scrap metals, and contributing across yard and operational spaces traditionally viewed as male-oriented roles. The shift reflects the organisation’s broader commitment towards building a more inclusive and equitable recycling sector.
Partnerships Driving Movement Building
Over the past four years, PRF has also witnessed stronger collaboration emerging across the recycling and sustainability sector, with corporates, government institutions, development partners, academic institutions, communities, regional organisations, and grassroots actors increasingly working together towards shared environmental goals.
“Advocacy creates conversations. Conversations create accountability. Accountability creates change,” Deo added.
Despite the progress achieved, PRF emphasised that Fiji’s waste management crisis continue to grow and that stronger partnerships, long-term investment, greater inclusion, and continued grassroots-informed solutions remain critical moving forward.
As PRF marks its fourth anniversary, the organisation reaffirmed its commitment towards continuing to strengthen advocacy, build partnerships, and create platforms where communities, recyclers, and future generations can actively participate in shaping a more sustainable Fiji.