Hybrid Regional Workshop on Container Deposit Schemes (CDS) in the Pacific (May 2025)

J-PRISM3 Expert Team held a workshop on the Container Deposit Schemes (CDS) in the Pacific on 21st May 2025 in a hybrid format session combining online and on-site attendance.

J-PRISM has been promoting 3R+Return activities in the Pacific since the beginning of the project and has also been assisting in establishing CDS systems in several countries. As a result, CDS systems have been established and are in operation in Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) while countries such as Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu are currently under consideration to introduce CDS. With this background, the hybrid workshop was held on a trial basis with the aim of providing a reference and support to those countries currently considering CDS by having countries that are leading the way introduce their experiences and current status. If this trial has been successful, the J-PRISM3 Expert Team will consider making it a series in the project.

The workshop was held at the Suva Civic Centre after the second Joint Coordinating Committee in Fiji and was attended by representatives from Ministry of Local Government (MLG), Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MECC), as well as officials from 12 local councils. More than 40 people participated online, including the project counterparts from Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

At the workshop, the J-PRISM3 Expert Team introduced the "CDS in the Pacific Island, a Guide for Policy Makers" created in J-PRISM Phase 2. Then, MECC explained the current status of CDS consideration in Fiji, and reported that, following up the work done in 2011, a feasibility study will be conducted utilizing consultants to consider a deposit fund for beverage containers and appropriate recycling fees. Following MECC, a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV), who proposed this workshop and was dispatched as a volunteer to the RMI when CDS was launched and is currently working as a volunteer in Suva, Fiji, gave a presentation on his experience of introducing CDS in Majuro, the RMI and explained various efforts to put the concept into operation.

In the end, the J-PRISM3 Expert Team and the Kosrae Island Resource Management Authority (KIRMA) of the FSM introduced the latest status of the CDS, and reported that PET plastic bottles that had been stranded and unable to be exported until now have been shipped to Taiwan for the first time as a pilot project, with KIRMA covering the shipping cost. Stranded PET bottles are also an issue in the RMI and Micronesian islands where the CDS is in operation, and it is expected that the pilot project in Kosrae State will serve as a reference for future efforts in other countries and states.

J-PRISM3 is committed to continue promoting 3R + Return activities in the Pacific and has decided 3R + Return as the theme of the second regional workshop in 2027 to support the creation of a sustainable system.