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Islands Business
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Pacific recycling programmes turn beverage containers into export revenue
October 26, 2026 _ VILIAME TAWANAKORO _ Circular Economy（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/circular-economy/）, Pacific（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/pacific/）, Recycling（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/recycling/）, Sustainability（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/sustainability/）, Waste Management（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/waste-management/） _ News（https://islandsbusiness.com/category/news-break/）,
Suva City Council workers sort community returns at the Lakeba Street Return and Earn Fiji site. Image: SUPPLIED
TUVALU’S first export of recycled PET flake and Fiji’s recovery of more than 17.7 million beverage containers show how Pacific collection programmes are linking recovered materials to recycling markets. At the same time, Samoa has opened a national centre to process plastic bottles and aluminium cans for export.
TUVALU: First PET flake export brings $AUD 76,721
Tuvalu will receive $AUD 76,721.64 for 37 tonnes of recovered beverage-container materials purchased by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Pacific Islands: eight tonnes of PET flake and 29 tonnes of aluminium.
The PET flake will be sent to a PET facility in Melbourne, Australia, to be recycled into new beverage containers.
The shipment marks Tuvalu’s first export of PET flake and demonstrates the country’s ability to collect, process and prepare post-consumer beverage containers for international recycling markets.
The initiative builds on the country’s Waste Management Levy Deposit Regulation, which targets specified imported beverage containers.
“Tuvalu has demonstrated that materials once considered waste can create genuine economic value for our country,” Minister for Home Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Dr Maina Vakafua Talia said.
He said the shipment reflected community commitment, the strength of the waste management system and partnerships supporting a cleaner and more sustainable future.
CCEP said its Mission Pacific programme had supported beverage-container collection, processing and recycling across the Pacific for more than 20 years. The purchase forms part of that programme.
FIJI: 17.7 million containers recovered in nine months
Return & Earn Fiji recovered 8,841,926 plastic bottles and 8,900,614 aluminium cans from January to September 2026, bringing collections to 17,742,540 containers.