Case Studies in Private Sector Participation: Solid Waste Management
In most urban areas in the Pacific, solid waste management services are the responsibility of the municipal authorities, who finance the services through their own budgets, with only limited contributions from fees paid directly by users.The private sector has been involved in the Pacific’s solid waste sector for many years, providing waste collection and/or disposal services in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga.
Two case studies discuss the impacts of public–private partnership contracts in the solid waste management services. The case study in Papua New Guinea draws on the National Capital District Commission (NCDC)'s experience with contracting rubbish collection to the private sector, and underscores the importance of robust and transparent procedures for tendering and contracting. In the case study in Fiji, green waste collection in Suva has been outsourced for over 25& years, but household waste collection has never been outsourced. While there is satisfaction with current practices for managing household waste, it has not been analyzed whether they yield higher value for money than that which might be achieved by outsourcing these services to private contractors.
