What started as a simple venture into something new turned out to be a passion and worthy cause – that is how the late Peter Bray, former Managing Director of Waste Recyclers PTE Fiji Ltd felt.

Mr. Bray who came to Fiji on a cruise ship fell in love with the place.

He had looked into different options of investment and one of his friends suggested that recycling would be a great area to look into and that’s how the journey of Waste Recyclers Fiji Limited began.

The first item that the company began to collect was wastepaper and now 30 years later, WRFL collects a wide range of recyclables including cardboard, plastic bottles, glass bottles, plastic, tin cans, aluminum cans, batteries, steel, and many more.

After the passing of Mr. Bray in 2020 the company was handed over to the then General Manager of WRFL, Amitesh Deo.

Amitesh joined the company in 2005 as the General Manager.

Over a period, and due to his commitment to the company, his role changed and even when he was providing consultancy services, all major decisions about the company were made by him or in consultation with him.

Amitesh has dedicated over 18 years to the recycling and waste management space. His extensive engagement with WRFL has equipped him with valuable experience and a diverse skill set. From business management to policy development, advocacy, lobbying, stakeholder, and media engagement, and technical expertise, Amitesh’s multifaceted approach supports skill transfer and staff mentoring at various levels.

Amitesh has the ultimate responsibility for the overall coordination of WRFL activities, its branches, and the day-to-day administration of the company. This includes the successful implementation of financial and strategic planning.

Under his leadership, Amitesh has been able to steer WRFL through political upheavals, cyclones and very recently the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Driven by a strong sense of environmental and social justice, Amitesh founded the Pacific Recycling Foundation (PRF) where he is the Founder and Director Operations.

Joseph Inoke currently holds the position of Managing Director and CEO.

With over 14 years of experience in recycling, Joseph began his journey with WRFL in 2010, initially contributing pro bono work until late 2021.

 Recycling Advocacy

Waste Recyclers Fiji Limited is committed to ensuring that recyclables do not end up in our landfills or are illegally disposed of.

Our work in Fiji as the only company that collects several different recyclables items normally goes unrecognised. It has been a real challenge to get some important stakeholders to be interested in recycling.

Roadmap to combatting recyclables from ending in Fiji’s landfill

1. Getting important stakeholders to work with us to ensure that recyclables are properly disposed of

We believe that one of the most important ways to move forward will be to get important stakeholders to understand recycling and how we all can work together. We work successfully with certain councils such as Lautoka City Council and Nadi Town Council but more work can be done with others. We also need to have consultation meetings with the likes of the Ministry of Environment and other government and non-government bodies, it would be most welcome to have any of these make contact with us, with a view of partnering with us in our endeavors.

Waste Recyclers (Fiji) Ltd has always had an inclusive approach and over the past years has sent out several requests for meetings to important stakeholders. Some have happened, while others have not taken much interest.  However, as an integrated approach, WRFL will continue to engage with key stakeholders.

1. Awareness and effective awareness

WRFL appreciates that awareness of recycling is important, effective awareness is critical. For instance, when we talk about recycling in schools, some teachers promote it by getting students to make artifacts with plastic bottles or paper. However, what happens to the art after the presentation is over. Another pile of rubbish? So in fact, that is not recycling. That is making one load of rubbish into another load of rubbish. The recycling we want people to have awareness of is where people, including students, understand that a plastic bottle can be placed in a recycling bin and that will ensure that it does not end up in a landfill, and that is actually gets recycled.

Waste Recyclers (Fiji) Ltd has been fighting the battle of ensuring recyclables are recycled. We hope to be able to continue with our work but with more support and understanding as the sustainability of Fiji’s environment is not only important for us or the business sector or the government bodies. It is important for everyone. The bottom line is, that if we want to tell the rest of the world how to behave, we must lead by example.