Recycling green waste to make compost: sharing the Taputapuatea experience among municipalities
Six French Polynesian municipalities were invited to attend a workshop in Taputapuatea (Raiatea) on 9 - 10 April to hear about that municipality’s composting facility and green waste management strategy. This gathering was made possible by the PROTEGE project, which has just wound up its support to Taputapuatea after two years. Report-back on the workshop.
A step towards sustainable agriculture: Taputapuatea shares its experience
The PROTEGE project, implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC) and funded by the European Union, supports initiatives to develop agroecology and sustainable agriculture in the Pacific region. In that context, the municipality of Taputapuatea (Raiatea, French Polynesia) won a PROTEGE call for projects and received XPF 20 million to consolidate the municipality’s efforts on recycling green waste into compost and supporting sustainable agriculture. This funding enabled it to purchase a new grinder, thus increasing its capacity to shred green waste, optimise its compost production, and share its experience with other municipalities during a two-day workshop.
Taputapuatea thus has a municipal composting facility, where it gathers all the green waste collected, grinds it and processes it into compost for many farmers, as well as for educational school gardens. High-quality compost is an essential foundation for supporting healthy and productive agriculture. French Polynesia’s Department of Agriculture (DAG), a PROTEGE partner, has, then, provided invaluable expertise to improve the quality of municipal compost.
For nearly 10 years, Taputapuatea has been experimenting with technical (machines and process for producing compost), operational (including resources, land and collection), and administrative aspects (including revenue management, budget, and the industrial and commercial public utility [SPCI]). This experience was shared with the six municipalities represented at the 9-10 April 2024 workshop: Ua Pou, Taiarapu-est, Taiarapu-ouest, Punaauia, Uturoa and Tumara’a. An elected official and a technician from each municipality attended.
Workshop Day 1: Definition, benefit and cost of recycling green waste
Between classroom sessions in the morning and a field visit in the afternoon, the day provided an introduction to the composting sector.
The DAG introduced the definition of compost and discussed the benefits to agriculture of recycling green waste.
Representatives of Taputapuatea municipality contributed to the presentation, recalling the history of the composting facility’s implementation and the associated costs.
Annual expenses for the sector total approximately XPF 18 million (including XPF 13 million in staff expenses). Fees and the sale of compost generate approximately XPF 4.3 million for the municipality annually. While this balance sheet may not balance out, it does reflect the municipality’s stated objective of supporting sustainable agriculture. The XPF 14 million needed to maintain the sector are provided by the municipality’s general budget, to finance the green waste supplementary budget.
The discussions were very informative and the presentations raised many questions from participating municipalities. Discussions continued during the afternoon and addressed the composting platform; staff laid out all the steps in the process of producing compost with demonstrations of the machines’ operations.
