Greening of the Games: have your say now
For the first time in Pacific Games history, Samoa as host of the XVI Games, has committed to a Greening of the Games campaign aiming for reduced single-use plastic and better waste management.
To know how successful this has been, a survey is under way collecting the thoughts and opinions of Pacific Games competitors and spectators.
As part of the Greening of the Games, a broad range of partners have come together to implement the Beautiful Samoa, Keep it Clean and Plastic Free Campaign.
Activities of which have been to provide athletes and officials with reusable bags and water bottles, have free water stations at all XVI Pacific Games venues, clean ups of the Apia area, special bins to separate waste at the Games venues, as well as calling upon all to play their part by using alternatives to Styrofoam packaging for food and choosing to say no to single-use plastics.
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“We’ve seen some really good actions underway at the Samoa 2019 Pacific Games as we strive to be plastic-free but we have also seen room for improvement,” said Mr Anthony Talouli the Pollution Adviser of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
“We’d like to call on as many people as possible to let us know their thoughts on this so we can learn where we were successful and how we can improve on this for the future.”
The survey can be accessed online at: The Greening of the Games 2019 Survey and takes no longer than 10 minutes to complete. The result of this will be valuable in helping to shape future Pacific green events demonstrating global leadership in protecting our environment.
A large part of the Greening of the Samoa 2019 Games campaign also asks people to play their part in reducing single-use plastic. While as much of the infrastructure is in place to reduce the single-use plastic water bottles with free water and distribution of reusable water bottles, people are still being asked to be responsible for their actions.
As Samoa is host to over 4,000 athletes and officials over the two - week period, the Greening of the Games will help address the waste problems such a large gathering can bring. Ultimately, this will also impact upon the overall Pacific region and our Planet.
Every year up to 13 million tonnes of plastic leak into our ocean and it is forecasted that by 2050 our ocean will have more plastic than fish.
“This is our reality, we really all need to work together to make a difference. Simple tasks such as saying no to Styrofoam and asking vendors to go green or use your own reusable container, using the reusable bags and putting your waste in the right rubbish bin or even better minimising your waste so there is less – these are things that we can all do ourselves,” said Mr Talouli.
It is through the survey that the results of the actions can be recorded as well as a growing understanding of how people’s behaviour will change for the better of our environment.
“Please do take the time to fill our survey out – we really do need to know how well we did and where we can improve for the future, our Pacific region will thank us all for our support,” said Mr Talouli.
