Green Steps – attacking Fiji's litter problem

Established in Fiji as an environmental beautification company, Green Steps has been busy cleaning beaches in the Suva area. Seeing the need to improve the cleanliness of the beaches and foreshore around Suva, Alexander Austin founded the company in 2008.

“I go out and get companies and individuals to “sponsor” rubbish bins. The funds raised from the advertising on the bins not only pays for the bin itself, but it pays the wages for a small group of young men which I employ through Green Steps to empty and maintain the rubbish bins as well as to clean the beaches and foreshore of Suva.”

So far Green Steps has installed 100 rubbish bins in the Suva area and there are plans for more to be installed. With these expansion plans in place, there are also plans to increase the number of employees.

Mr. Austin also believes that “people in the Pacific and in particular Fiji, need to be taught that rubbish has to be disposed of properly. An empty container might be useless to us after a picnic, but is absolutely deadly to the marine environment.”

“There are many items which end up on the beaches around Fiji because people are either too lazy or too ignorant to put rubbish in the right place. The problem with all this litter is that in addition to being an eye sore, it’s unhealthy and the marine inhabitants cannot digest it.”

The company has also been active in educating the public especially school students on the importance of cleanliness and the use of rubbish bins in public places.

For more information of Green Steps and what they are doing please contact: Alexander Austin at alex@purefiji.com - Green Steps on Facebook