Mary O’Reilly, Director of WasteWise Consulting, has lived in Vanuatu for the last 10 years and has extensive experience working with Municipal Councils, and the Department of Environment across solid waste management planning, policy, sustainable finance, capacity development, programme evaluation and stakeholder engagement. Mary is currently the National Coordinator for the J-PRISM II project which is focusing on the introduction of a product stewardship scheme for selected beverage containers and the review of the National Waste Management and Pollution Control Strategy.

Through her work in Vanuatu Mary has developed strong relationships with key personnel across both local and national government, industry, NGOs and community organisations. Prior to moving to Vanuatu Mary worked in the waste management industry in New Zealand and Ireland working in both the private sector and local government to improve waste management best practice.

Vanuatu Beverage Limited is proud manufacturer of “Vanuatu Water”, the only bottled spring water of Vanuatu, and “Splashe”, Vanuatu’s only locally made soft drinks since 1972. We also manufacture other drinks such as fruit juice, cordial, spirits and liqueurs. Thanks to recent investments, we were able to achieve quality standards and production volumes, which allows us to satisfy the local demand but also reach export markets.

Nevertheless, we are aware of the environmental impact of our manufactured goods in Vanuatu, and therefore, as part of our environmental and social responsibility policy, we are very active in finding waste management and recycling solutions to reduce our eco-footprint from the waste of our manufactured products. One of our main project, working with other VRWMA members, is the setting up of a national container deposit scheme which will resolve the littering issue of all beverage products and centralizing its waste for recycling purposes.