Restoring ecosystems

ENVIRONMENT

Waste management company raises awareness on environment protection and rehabilitation

TOTAL Waste Management Group has been a proud supporter of the United Nations global initiative, World Environment Day (WED) for the past few years. This year’s WED was again marked with events throughout the week leading up to the day last Saturday. Total Waste Managemen (TWM) Group started off as a company specialising in the handling of hazardous waste from industrial and mining sites but has since diversified into allied fields in industrial services, environmental advisory, renewables, training and Total Skillpac (providing dedicated services in identifying skills shortfalls for clients and developing solutions with an integrated approach to training, international workplace exposure and planned personnel development). Since 2015 company’s teams have worked on a series of clean up campaigns across the country, including significant projects in Hides (Hela), Papa Lea Lea and Ela Beach in Central and NCD respectively. TWM Group has proudly supporting the 2021 WED theme, ‘Ecosystem Restoration’, by hosting a week of education and information sessions on ecosystem restoration and the environment at its integrated waste management facility and headquarters at Roku, Central. The TWM environmental advisory team has initiated a series of activities over the week leading up to World Environment Day with a focus on ecosystems being under constant threat, the drivers of ecosystem degradation – both at direct and aggregate, and the various ways to help repair the environment. The programme kicked off with employees bringing a before and after (current) photo of plants they took home last WED (2020) to plant.

The objective this year is to plant 35 tree seedlings on our site to help restore cleared areas and prevent soil erosion and sedimentation. “Everyone should play their part in keeping our environment intact every day not only on World Environment Day. One of our core values is that we care, and this is always at the forefront of what we stand for and what we do at TWM,” says Kori Chan, Managing Director of TWM Group. “Tree planting is our main activity this year which is perfectly aligned to the theme of ecosystem restoration. The current pandemic has restricted us in doing a large-scale community exercise, but we will play our part where we can.’’ “TWM Group extends its support to the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (Cepa) in their various WED activities. With these environment-focused activities and the tree planting to wrap up an exciting week, TWM Group is proud to lead the way in our continual care for our environment, and promote sustainable and responsible consumption of ecosystem services,” Chan adds Organisers of the WED this year invited the Port Moresby Nature Park management to join the TWM Group staff at Roku to mark the event. Port Moresby Nature Park General Manager David Thompson, sales and marketing manager Denise Girey and education manager Shirley Mogi attended addressed the staff at their morning toolbox session before proceeding to plant trees. Acacia seedlings were selected for planting and the guests joined TWM staff to plant them along the company perimeter fence. The acacia is a hardy evergreen specie that is suitable for the ecosystem restoration. It is noted for its qualities in erosion control, soil improvement and nitrogen fixing. It is also a good shade and ornamental tree for urban centres.

At the TWM site at Roku, the growing acacia trees will help prevent erosion at the cleared sites provide soil cover as well. TWM Group Quality, Health, Safety, Systems and Environment (QHSSE) coordinator Gawi said that efforts of the company to restore the its site of operations to its former state were ongoing and the annual tree planting was part of these efforts. “The company’s reinstatement and rehabilitation of the environment are done simultaneously with ongoing construction, to try to restore the area to its former state. Tree planting is part of this.” Thompson and his colleagues from the Port Moresby Nature Park spoke about the park’s role in terms of habitat protection, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable resource management. Port Moresby Nature Park is PNG’s leading attraction dedicated to protecting PNG’s unique flora and fauna through engaging experiences. “It was also a great opportunity for the park to show its support towards TWM Group’s commitment to uphold and deliver their corporate charter to protect PNG’s cultural and natural heritage, as well as encouraging them to care for their natural environment,” the park management said. Chris Sigere, the company’s QHSSE Manager said the WED event was an eye opener for the guests as well as company staff and management themselves. It provided an opportunity for the Port Moresby Nature Park management to see and appreciate what TWM Group was doing in the area of waste management and the handling of harzardous materials. Sigere said there was now an opportunity for TWM Group to interact with the park to show what they were doing in terms of waste management and environment restoration. “This (engagement with Port Moresby Nature Park) will go a long was in demonstrating our compliance to environment protection guidelines from the Government. We will work with interested parties such as the Port Moresby Nature Park in future engagements for them to understand what we are doing and perhaps learn from us too.” He added also that through the nature park’s education programme, TWM could also educate students of different age groups about the safe handling of waste materials and their activities in general, to protect the environment or restore ecosystems. The WED event ended with a barbeque at the newly cleared site for the new company head office overlooking Roku Bay.