Solid Waste Management

Lack of proper waste management practices always has negative impacts and serious consequences for
health care, environmental quality, water resources, fisheries, agriculture, tourism, trade, food security,
and sustainable development in general. In the Pacific, poor waste management practices are made
worse by:

 increases in waste generation caused by economic and population growth

 limited availability of suitable land on small islands and atolls for landfills—made worse by customary land
tenures, and "not in my backyard" attitudes
 remoteness of many islands resulting in high costs for imported supplies (e.g. spare parts and fuel)
 small and sometimes sparse populations which limit potential economies of scale
 limited institutional, and human resources capacity, and the fact that solid waste financing has not kept
pace with growth in waste quantities
A material is discarded if it is abandoned by being:

 disposed of;
 burned or incinerated, including being burned as a fuel for the purpose of
recovering usable energy; or
 accumulated, stored or physically, chemically or biologically treated (other than
burned or incinerated) instead of or before being disposed of.

A material is disposed of if it is:

Discharged, deposited, injected, dumped, spilled, leaked or placed into or on any

land or water so that such material or any constituent thereof may enter the
environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into groundwater or surface
water.

RCRA states that "solid waste" means any garbage or refuse, sludge from a
wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control
facility and other discarded material, resulting from industrial, commercial,
mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities. Nearly
everything we do leaves behind some kind of waste.
It is important to note that the definition of solid waste is not limited to wastes that
are physically solid. Many solid wastes are liquid, semi-solid, or contained
gaseous material.