PALAU SHORELINE CLEANUP YIELDS 5 TONS OF TRASH

PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

PALAU SHORELINE CLEANUP YIELDS 5 TONS OF TRASH
Ngarchelong residents tidy up

By Philip N. Haruo

SAIPAN, CNMI (Mariana Variety, April 28, 2008) - The shoreline of Ngarchelong state in Palau is now as clean as it was 30 years ago.

Residents, through an initiative of the Council of Chiefs, picked up some 11,500 pounds of assorted trash from the state’s coastlines on April 12 and 19.

[PIR editor’s note: Ngarchelong is a state in Palau located on the island of Babeldaob.]

According to Dwayline Ngirailild, the people on foot, boats, kayaks and rafts who participated in the coastal cleanup worked diligently.

They sorted the trash, separating the recyclables from the non-recyclables, and weighed them separately.

All of the non-recyclable trash collected was disposed of at the new state landfill.

The recyclable items, those that were not kept by participants, were transported to a section of the landfill to be sold to recyclers in Koror.

Ngirailild said most of trash picked up must have come from other countries, and some items were labeled with foreign letterings and bore company logos that have never done business in Palau.

The state’s Chief Uong Er Etei Victor Joseph congratulated and applauded the cleanup participants.

"To prolong our existence, we must, together, protect our environment," he said.

He also thanked the organizations and individuals for their contributions to the state’s coastal cleanup.

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