HILARY HOSIA
Christmas came early for Majuro Atoll Waste Company (MAWC).
With just a push of a button, the bottle compressor machine went to work and converted eight barrels of aluminum cans and plastic bottles into a perfect rectangle similar to a giant Popsicle.
The machine, along with a metal compressor, two hand lifters, and the recycle center at the Majuro Atoll Waste Company were being christened Tuesday.
The compressors and hand lifters are valued at $200 million yens, which is $1.7 million in US dollars and were part of Japan’s Non-Project Grant Aid for the Provision of Japanese Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)’s products. The Recycle center, however, was donated through the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) and it’s valued at $130,363 US dollars.
Japan Ambassador to Marshall Islands Hideyuki Mitsuoka said his Embassy hopes the new equipment will contribute to the recycle program in RMI and that the timely arrival of the equipments complements the RMI government’s ban on plastic and Styrofoam products.
Read more about this in the December 2, 2016 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.