The project aims to tackle the generation of waste in several ways:

1. We will source biodegradable and reusable food and beverage containers from overseas and local sources, and provide these to The Creative Centre (TCC), a non profit school established in 2001 as a life skills programme that catered for adults with an impairment (see http://www.creativecentre.edu.ck. TCC supports people with disabilities by raising funds from donations and selling art and craft goods made by the students. We will support TCC to sell the biodegradeable and reuseable products at their stall at the Punanga Nui Market. We will encourage and assist TCC to set up a similar stall at the Muri Night Market. Sustainability will be achieved with funds going into a revolving fund to repurchase the containers, with any surplus used to support the learning activities of the TCC. In Aitutaki the Aitutaki Consevation Trust (ACT) will provide on the ground support in getting food vendors and schools engaged with the activities.
2. We will promote the use of a hygenic washing centre at each location, which will allow vendors to sell food with plates and cutlery that can be washed and reused.

3. We will run an awareness campaign to encourage people to use these alternatives, and to discourage the food sellers from using non-biodegradable containers which are filling our landfill.

4. We will also initiate an awareness campaign on the hazards of burning rubbish, particularly man-made plastics which release dioxins into the air and are absorbed by living organisms, some of which are a food source to Cook Island people. Waste is listed as the 3rd most significant source of green house gas emissions in the latest Cook Islands National Communication to the UNFCCC.

5. In support of the Ministry of Education?s Green Schools Policy, we will supply compost bins to every school in the Cook Islands, and follow up to raise awareness on composting through demonstration sites and training, to discourage burning of household and garden waste, and promote the use of the compost as organic fertilser.

6. We will supply worm farms initially to 10 schools in the Cook Islands, for a similar purpose. Worm castings and ?worm tea? will be promoted as an organic alternative to chemical fertilisers
We will run training courses in their correct use.

7. We will work with the schools to upscale these pilot composters and worm farms using locally available materials to build larger versions. Where possible, these local materials will be removed from the existing waste stream, eg car tyres, wooden pallets, construction waste.

8. Beneficiaries include all schools in the Cook Islands, including the Creative Centre school, and the education system in general by assisting with the green schools programme. Letters of support are available from the Ministry of Education, the Creative Centre, and the Aitutaki Conservation Trust. The entire population becomes a beneficiary through improved waste management, and a decrease in health associated issues from burning plastics as well as organics.