BIOLOGY INVESTIGATION PROJECT

TOPIC: SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL

NAME: BOBAI

SURNAME: RARAWETE

FORM: SIX SCIENCE

TEACHER: ADRIAN MERAKE

SCHOOL: ST FRANCIS HIGH SCHOOL

DUE DATE: 27/08/16

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TOPIC: Solid Waste disposal

QUESTION: Are plastics a major solid waste disposal problem in Kiritimati Island

HYPOTHESIS: That the major non-degradable rubbish produced in Households is Plastic bags
which could contaminate the Island environment.

AIM:

 To find the main purpose of the solid waste recycling & Establishment of Landfill in
Kiritimati Island
 To find out what is the main item commonly recycled in Kiritimati Island
 To investigate the average number (annually) of plastics generated in Kiritimati Island

METHODOLOGY

 Book research

o First of all, I went to the school library and do a research on books that are
relevant to my topic on this project.

 Internet Research

o Secondly, I went to the internet café to research more information on waste

recycling and download some of the pictures applicable to the topic.

 Encarta research

o Moreover, I also visit the Microsoft Premium Encarta 2009 to find further
information about my topic.
 Personal Interview.
o I visit the Kiritimati Urban Council at London and do a short interview with the
Clerk council on the topic “Recycling, Landfill area and Plastic bags”.

 Three main conducted Experiments

o I finally carry out an experiment to investigate the number of plastic waste

produced by selected households in Tabwakea village, and which type of plastic
bags is friendlier to the environment and the main purpose of why the Landfill
established in Kiritimati Island and in additional to find out Is it plastics the major
rubbish, dumped in the landfill.

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Experiment 1:

- The average number of plastic wastes produced annually at Households, in Tabwakea

Village.

Apparatus:

- 20 Households selected at Tabwakea Village

- 20 Survey sheets (Refer to Appendix A.)

This experiment last for 1 week only. It is a short experiment to find out the average number of
plastics wastes produced in Households at Tabwakea Village per week. Later the findings are
analysed and another calculation generated to investigate the average number of plastics wastes
produced per month and year.

Procedures:

Step 1: I selected households in Tabwakea.

Step 2: I distributed my survey sheets (Refer to Appendix A) to each selected household.

Step 3: I described and explain how to fill in the above survey sheet.

Step 4: After a week I visited the selected households and collected my survey sheet.

Experiment 2:

- The main purpose of Landfill in Kiritimati Island and what is the most abundant
rubbish found in the landfill

This brief experiment last for 1 week. It is one of the experiments designed, however not a real
experiment, but could be an effective facilitator in probing the fact about the disposal of plastics
and to investigate the role of Landfill in our environment.

Apparatus;

- Questionnaire sheet (Refer to Appendix B)

- Pen & Note pad
- Camera

Procedures:

Step 1: I seeked permission to carry out my experiment at the landfill from the Kiritimati Urban
Council (KUC), the main operator of Landfill.

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Step 2: I made an appointment with the person in charge of the landfill and managed to take
pictures

Step 3: Interview with the person in charge at the Landfill and fill in the answers in my prepared
questionnaire sheet accordingly.

Experiment 3:

- Biological facts (Which is more friendly) of some types of plastics in Kiritimati Island.

The experiment is mainly focus on the investigation of friendly level between ordinary plastics
and bio plastics since it is now encouraged on the island, and searched additional information
from plastics manufacturer around the world about their point of view on non-environmentally
friendly plastics.

Apparatus:

- Shovel
- 1 Ordinary plastic bags
- 1 bio plastic bags (provided from KUC)
- Weight machine

Procedures:

Step 1: The two different types of plastics are weighted (2 x Ordinary and 2 x Bio plastic)

Step 2: I dug 4 holes, 0.5 meters depth

Step 3: I then buried the two different plastics in each holes respectively and left them for 2
months to be decomposed.

Step 4: After the above period of time, I took off the above plastics and again weighted them.

Step 5: Observation upon the two different plastics was the final step.

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INTRODUCTION

By looking at the term recycling, it can be defined as the processing of used or waste material so
that it can be used again, instead of being wasted. However in Kiritimati Island recycling is also
practiced as one way to minimize the quantity of waste that is exposing in the island. This report
will talk about the important or main purpose of recycling and the main reason of the establishment
of the Landfill project which is funded by the New Zealand aid. In spite of that, in nowadays
plastics has becoming one of the main rubbish dumped scattered anywhere on land and in the sea.
Are the people aware of the problems which might be caused by throwing plastics waste in an
unusual manner that is the main concern of this project? The improper disposal of plastics can
affect our normal health and the environment. However, the main purpose of this investigation is
to explorer more about the generation of plastics wastes by households in Kiritimati Island.
Tabwakea village has chosen to be the main venue of this investigation since it has the greatest
population of 3181. Finally the propping of which type of plastics is friendlier to the environment.

RESULTS

Experiment 1 Results:

Table 1:

HOUSEHOLDS DAY1 DAY2 DAY3 DAY4 DAY5 DAY6 DAY7 TOTAL AVERAGE

1 Mapuola 4 3 5 4 2 2 5 25 4
2 Marabu 8 2 4 2 1 3 6 10 5
3 Tamiano 4 1 6 6 5 1 2 5 3
4 Kakiaman 6 0 2 1 2 2 1 6 3
5 Arikita 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 2 1
6 Rangateaba 5 2 0 11 7 12 8 45 6
7 Vakariki 8 2 4 4 3 2 2 25 4
8 Sanele 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 3 0
9 Biribo 2 2 1 1 3 0 3 12 2
10 Iakobwa 3 1 1 0 3 1 2 11 2
11 Taatu 2 0 2 3 3 0 5 15 2
12 Kabiriera 4 5 5 4 2 6 5 4 4
13 Terebu 1 0 0 2 1 2 0 6 1
14 Freddy 8 2 12 6 3 2 5 38 5
SUM 55 15 25 31 26 23 32 207 30
AVERAGE 4 1 3 3 3 2 4 15

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 Table 2:
HOUSEHOLDS WEEK MONTH YEAR  The average of plastic wastes engendered
1 Mapuola 25 750 9000 by the village of Tabwakea per year is:
2 Marabu 10 300 3600
3 Tamiano 5 150 1800 = The total household in Tabwakea
4 Kakiaman 6 180 2160 X
60 720
The average number of plastic waste
5 Arikita 2
engendered annually
6 Rangateaba 45 1350 16200
(From the results)
7 Vakariki 25 750 9000
8 Sanele 3 90 1080
9 Biribo 12 360 4320 Therefore: 264 x 5323 = 1,405,272
10 Iakobwa 11 330 3960
11 Taatu 15 450 5400
12 Kabiriera 4 120 1440
13 Terebu 6 180 2160
14 Freddy 38 1140 13680
Average 15 444 5323

Figure 1:

The average number of plastic engendered by households

daily (Tabwakea Village)
The average number of plastics waste

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 Figure 2:

The average number of plastic wastes engendered weekly by

household in Tabwakea Village
50
The average number of plastics waste

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Figure 3:

The average number of plastic wastes engendered monthly by

household in Tabwakea Village
The average number of plastics waste

1600

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

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 Figure 3:

The average number of plastic wastes engendered annually by

household in Tabwakea Village
18000
The average number of plastics waste

16000

14000

12000

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

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Experiment 2 Results: LANDFILL, ASSISI, KIRITIMATI ISLAND

Some of images of rubbish being dumped in the Landfill sites, Xmas Island. It proved lot of
plastics bags seen around in this Landfill.

The Kiritimati Island Landfill is kindly funded by the New Zealand aid project. It is a new method
of rubbish disposal on the island, and is now eventually used by all people on the island.

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Interviewing process with Tamaroa Tentau, In charge officer of Landfill site;

A) Do you know what types of rubbish is commonly disposed in the Landfill?

- Actually all kind of refuse are dumped here, and I cannot give the actual types of rubbish
which is commonly thrown in this place; however, from my observations apparently about 2/3
of the rubbish are Cans, Plastics and bottles.

B) What is the main purpose of establishing the landfill on the Island?

- The landfill is kindly established by the New Zealand aids project to help reduce the
littering around the Island and to improve the biological breakdown of Solid Wastes and the
land is reused usually for recreational purposes.

C) Are there any environmental benefits from this Landfill?

- All landfill are indeed friendly to our Environment. It is constructed in a way to reduce the
impacts of land and water pollution. First it has to be established far from the people settlement
to prevent people’s contact with toxic rubbish. All the rubbish thrown here will be then covered
by at least 0.5 meters of soil to prevent rats, mice and flies or domestic pets getting at it and to
bring it in contact with the soil microorganism. It reduces the bad smell, and at some sites bio
gas can be extracted and collected and used as fuel, but it has not yet processed in this landfilled,
maybe later.

D) Could you tell us the how the disposal method is taking place in this area?

- First all the rubbish are collected from all the villages in the island. Then these rubbish will
be thrown here in the prepared holes in this area. Lately at each month the holes will be covered
with soil and the next holes dug for the next disposal. At big landfill. This method provides a
friendly breakdown of solid waste;

E) How is the incinerator help reduce the solid waste?

- For the time being, the incinerator is unavailable in this landfill.

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Experiment 3 results:

THE WEIGHT OF THE DIFFERENT PLASTIC BAGS BEFORE AND AFTER BURYING
TYPE OF WEIGHT WEIGHT DIFFERENCE OBSERVATIONS
PLASTIC BAGES BEFORE AFTER

BIO BAG 1 9.6 g 8.4 g -1.2 g - Holes seen

- Some part are torn out
- Roots attached
- Loss weight

BIO BAG 2 9.0 g 8.2 g -0.8 g - Holes seen

- Some part are torn out
- Roots attached
- Loss weight

ORDINARY 10 g 10.2 g + 0.2 g - No Hole

BAG 1 - Has its whole body
- Not torn out
- No roots attached
- Gain weight

ORDINARY 10 g 10.1 g + 0.1 g - No holes

BAG 2 - Has its whole body
- No roots attached
- Gain weight

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DISCUSSION

 Environmental Problems caused by littering solid waste such as plastics.

We are littering polluting the land, waste and the air we breathe. It’s just too easy to throw papers,
plastics (solid waste) and other stuff you don’t need on the ground. Too much garbage hurls our
environment and the animals (Westly, 2007).

From experiment one it is obviously noticed that households in Tabwakea village could
engendered an average number of plastic wastes of 1,405,272 per year. In one day each household
gathered around 30 plastic waste. This can contribute to the huge amount of plastics littering at
Tabwakea village and Kiritimati as a whole. We can assume from the figure above that if the total
households in Kiritimati Island is approximately 687 (from survey statistics), then the average
number of plastic wastes engendered per year will be about 965,421,864. It is a huge figure and
considered extremely danger. The most common type of plastics purchased by households in
Kiritimati Island are from domestic plastics such as noodle plastics, plastic bags, food wrappers,
shampoo and so forth. It is observed from the results that the purchasing of these plastics is
continuously getting high. The littering and purchasing are proportion which means “When there
is an increase of plastics waste purchased there is an increase of plastics wasted will be littered,
said Alice (O.I.C, Kitimati Urban Council). Therefore, around the coastal area and road in
Tabwakea village, plastic wastes could be seen lying around freely. For instance, as you can see
below is the photo being disposed over the beach and into the sea on Tabwakea village Costal
area? Alice Kianteta elaborate species that are living in a place and people could be sick as well
when they consume those marine species such as fish, crab and so forth.

Some people burn their plastic wastes and that is not a proper way to get rid of this kind of rubbish,
not good to the environment because the fumes given off by plastics contain some toxic gases such
as Hydrochloride gas). Hydrochloride gas can cause disease and affect our health. (Wright D,
2001)

 The purpose of recycling solid wastes

Mrs. John argues that because waste is not friendly to our environment as it could pollute our
world, some countries were trying to find a better way to solve the problem and they come up with
a brilliant idea of recycling the waste. She added by saying that they are doing the recycle of
rubbish for it purpose to reduce the amount of waste and it effects and to make our world clean
and nice for the betterment of people’s living. For example, in most household in Kiribati
especially in Tarawa and Kiritimati, it becomes one of their jobs to collect can beers near the road
and other place where they come across one and put them inside the green bag and bring them to
the island council for recycling purpose (Alice Kianteata, 2016).

These wastes will be taken to the island council in order to be crushed and sent overseas for
recycling purpose (Alice Kianteata, 2016). There is crusher machine that is now being used in

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Kiritimati Island. Can beers and soft drinks are crushed and then put inside the container and
shipped overseas, she added. In addition, most ministries and stores in Kiritimati put their rubbish
bin in front of their doors so that it could help the cleaning to be easy. These bins will be taken by
the island council when they are full up, Alice Kianteata added. Below are some pictures shows
the kind of bin that is used and the council truck collecting rubbish.

The two images above show the council truck and it compartments. It proved that there is a bin
for cans only, glass only, and plastic only.

When we mismanaged our waste/rubbish, it could contaminate our world environment. For
example, in Kiribati people dispose their rubbish over the beach and into the sea in which it pollute
the marine and the living organisms in it (Alice Kianteata, 2016). This is because these waste such
as battery have toxic chemicals so when it thrown into the sea, that area would be infected. Not
only that, plastic that disposed into the sea could cause death to marine species such as turtle as it
could eat that plastic and make him suffocated (Alice Kianteata, 2016). Furthermore, people
behavior of burning their non-degradable rubbish like plastic and so forth, also could contaminate
the air that we breathe and increase global warming (Alice Kianteata, 2016). Thus, we should
recycle our rubbish because that is the only one and better way to reduce the quantity of rubbish
and decrease their effect as well.

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  Bio Plastic Bag Fact

Bio plastic bag are made from corn starch or potato starch mixed chemically with few plastics
properties. Country such as Japan and United States manufacture this kind of compostable bags.
Bio plastic bag are easily decomposed as they does not contain polyethylene, and more reliable to
be breakdown naturally by microorganisms of the soil. They are designed in this way to declining
the ruining of our environment. It is nontoxic and suitable for domestic holder or containers. It
undergoes the same decomposition process like other materials such as leaves and dead plants.

According to Experiment 3 it is observed that when the two bio plastic bags is taken out from the
soil it become lighter than before it was buried. It proved that some of it properties has been
decomposed by microorganisms of the soil. On the other hand, it could be completely vanish
through the soil if it is left for more than a year. By comparison with the other bags (ordinary
plastic bags) it quite clear that it does not decomposed as it weight stays the same as before and
after it has been buried.

 How the Kiritimati Landfill is friendly to the Environment?

According to the Experiment number 2, all the rubbish thrown at the Landfill are used in such a
biological process. First the Council truck collects all the rubbish around the villages and carry
them to the landfill site. The rubbish is then dumped in the prepared big holes and covered with
soil when the holes full. The covering of rubbish with soil will prevent pests to land on it and more
importantly so that the rubbish could be decomposed by decomposers found in the soil such as
bacteria. Landfill is also very important in a way that all the rubbish thrown and covered with soil
could be converted into a useful gas which can be later use as fuel. Landfill is a true friend of our
Environment. It reduces the impacts of solid waste to our environment by collecting and
decomposing solid waste.

(Source: Tentau T, 2016, Officer in charge, Landfill site, per.com)

What type of plastic are used in Kiritimati Island?

Most of the plastic commonly used in Kiritimati Island come from domestic products; for example;
food wrappers such as noodle wrapper, shampoo containers, soup wrapper and so forth. Secondly
from commercial products includes; PVC pipes, TV and Computers. Furthermore, sport products
such soccer ball. All this stuff are made of plastics and are commonly used in Kiritimati Island.

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CONCLUSION

In conclusion, solid waste is now known as one of a major problems to our world environment,
and therefore we should hold hands and act together to start cleaning and use recycling in order
to reduce waste and it pollution for the betterment of our world that we live and for the great health
of people and the new generation. After this investigation it is discovered that the average number
of plastic bags being generated per year is 965,421,864 by households in Kiritimati Island. It has
been known from the description and the finding of this investigation study that plastics is one of
the solid wastes that is not a good friend to the environment. It can ruin the life of organisms both
on the land and in the sea. In addition, plastics is not one of the major recycled items in Kiritimati
Island, not like a can of beer which is commonly recycled, but it is the most abundant number from
solid wastes being engendered by households in Kiritimati Island. However a project of Landfill
will stand up and help reduce the harmful of this mentioned solid waste. It will act in a way to
enable all undecomposed waste to be reliable to be decomposed, and convert them into more useful
stuff such as Bio fuel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Kianteata. A, 2016 Council Clerk, per.com.

B. John. B, 2065, Geography Teacher, St. Francis High School, per. com.

C. Wright D, 2001, “Human Physiology and Health”, Heinemann, United Kingdom.

D. Tentau T, 2016, Officer in charge, Landfill site, per.com.

E. Brett M (1996) Recycling in the Pacific, University of Oklahoma, USA

F. Postawko, S, M. Morrissey and D. Shellberg (2000) Introduction to Recycling and our
environment, Australian Publishing Service, Canberra

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APPENDINCES

A. SURVEY SHEET

NAME: _______________________________

DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7

NUMBER
OF
PLASTICS

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B. QUESTIONNAIRE SHEET 1

A) Do you know what types of rubbish is commonly disposed in the Landfill?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

B) What is the main purpose of establishing the landfill on the Island?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

C) Are there any environmental benefits from this Landfill?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

D) Could you tell us the how the disposal method is taking place in this area?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

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