A Tiny Pacific Island Nation Is Leading The Way Toward Tackling Plastic Pollution

It’s a problem that has become increasingly serious over the past several decades — but the inhabitants of Vanuatu have developed a solution that might help much larger nations around the world deal with it.

We’re talking about plastic pollution, which had become such a serious issue for the small Pacific island nation that locals would go fishing but pull back nets filled with trash instead.

Identifying the causes

While plastics have become ubiquitous worldwide, Vanuatu was especially vulnerable based on its remote location. Depending on shipments from far away to meet their daily needs, the local population became inundated with goods packaged in plastic without an effective way to discard the empty containers.

Statistics suggest that Pacific nations produce more than two pounds of trash per capita per day — or about 40% more than the worldwide average.

Reduce and reuse

Instead of simply investing in new strategies to remove the plastics cluttering the islands’ beaches and surrounding water, officials sought new strategies that would cut down on the amount of disposable containers being used. And in 2018, that effort began to take shape in the form of a new ban on plastic straws and a variety of other single-use plastic items.

It was a revolutionary step that hadn’t been taken anywhere else in the world at that time, and over the course of just the past six years, it’s easy to see the impact it has made.

Here are some of the most obvious highlights:

• Food items are being transported in banana leaves instead of disposable boxes
• Shoppers carry reusable containers instead of relying on plastic bags
• Plastic cutlery, single-use plates, and artificial flowers have since been banned

The items now prohibited nationwide once accounted for more than one-third of its total waste — and now that percentage is under 2%.

Chris Agee June 21st, 2024

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