This Diwali, Let’s Look Beyond Cleaning Homes – Let’s Clean Fiji

As the nation prepares to celebrate Diwali, Pacific Recycling Foundation is calling on Fijians to look beyond cleaning their individual homes and instead reflect on how we can collectively “clean Fiji” – not just physically, but through a change in mindset, habits, and accountability toward waste.

PRF Founder Amitesh Deo said Diwali should remind everyone that true light is not found in decoration or display, but in the choices, we make to protect our shared environment.

“Every Diwali, we sweep, scrub, and polish our homes to perfection. Yet, much of this cleaning ends with piles of mixed waste being dumped into dumpsites, drains, empty lots, or rivers. That is not cleanliness, it is displacement,” said Deo.

He added that genuine cleanliness must extend beyond self-serving actions and that people must view Fiji and our planet as one home.

“We must stop calling only our house ‘home.’ The planet is our home. When we clean our homes but pollute our environment, we are simply moving the waste from one part of our home to another. This illusion of cleanliness must end,” he said.

“A clean Fiji will only be possible when our attitude changes from convenience to consciousness, when our actions reflect responsibility, and when we hold ourselves accountable. Waste does not disappear when it leaves your gate – someone else, often our Collection Pillars of Recycling, bear the burden of what we discard,” he said.

He also urged communities, businesses, and institutions to rethink how they define responsibility, saying that systemic cleanliness requires structured recycling systems, not symbolic gestures.

“This Diwali, let us clean our thinking before we clean our homes. Let us build systems where waste is not hidden but managed – where every piece of plastic, metal, or paper is given a chance to be recycled rather than dumped,” said Deo.

PRF calls on all Fijians to use this festive season as a time of reflection and renewal.