by Lucy-Claire Saunders

    UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Tucked between two fertile mountains on the coastal range of Grenada, a massive heap of trash smolders something foul. Black smoke twists and turns through the humid Caribbean air. The country's dump has been on fire for more than six months, and nobody knows how to extinguish it on the cheap.

    "To put out the fire is very, very costly, it's very involved," said Vaughn Forsyth, the operations manager at the Grenada Solid Waste Management Authority, a private waste collection service.

    The choices are limited, and not without their problems. The government can smother the fire with compacted soil but that would cost in excess of 1 million U.S. dollars, said Forsyth. Or they can douse the fire, but that would leach toxic chemicals into the soil and the ocean.

    "Unless there's a structured way of excavating the material, laying it down and dousing it, and capturing all the leaching, then ... that would not be feasible," he said at Grenada's Perseverance dumpsite. "We understand the situation is not acceptable. It is unacceptable, it should not be happening."

    But happening it is -- around the world on many small developing islands nations. In October, Xinhua traveled to five islands throughout the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and in the South Pacific to do a series of reports on climate change.

    But along the way, one thing became evident: islands suffer from poor waste management. With limited space, island nations have a tough time figuring out what to do with their refuse. As governments open their doors to modern packaging without devising a clear strategy for how to handle the leftovers, the problem has only gotten worse.

    In Grenada, the Solid Waste Management Authority is working with a German consulting firm to prepare a long-term strategy. But with limited space and limited resources, figuring out what to do with the trash has become something of a conundrum.

    As a result, the public has just learned to accept the burning mess as a necessary evil.

    "Acceptability from the public of what is happening here," said Forsyth. "There is not enough pressure on the powers that be, let me put it that way, to make a difference. I think that in Grenada we have come to accept that what is happening here at Perseverance is normal, is acceptable."

    MALDIVES

    Meanwhile, halfway around the world, people living in the Maldives have been throwing their trash on the beach for so long that the word for beach in Devehi, 'Gondu,' is associated with rubbish. It's tradition now.

    "It's horrible," said Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan. "We don't like it, we're not proud of it. And we want to change that situation."

    Roughly 16 years ago, the government looked to Thilafushi, a pristine coral reef, to serve as dumping grounds for the whole country. But overtime space has become limited, and getting the trash there from the more remote islands is difficult and expensive. In addition, trash is also burned on Thilafushi sendingtoxic chemicals into the air. All in all, Thilafushi appears to be a short-term answer to a long-term problem.

    If the government is to succeed in making the Maldives "carbon-neutral" by 2020, they will have to figure out how to dispose of their waste in an environmentally friendly way, something Hassan said is a top priority for his government.

    The government is currently working with an Australian company to possibly develop bio-gas plants. The hope is to turn biodegradable waste into heat or gas by burning it in a facility. Not only would it solve the waste problem but it would serve as an alternative to fossil fuels.

    "I think the solutions are there, we have to find the right organization to do it," said Hassan in his home in the country's capital, Male. "But also you know, disposing the waste is something we have to change in people's thinking."

    About 30 minutes by boat on the island of Guraidhoo, it is practically impossible to walk along the beaches without stepping on rusting metal or plastic bags -- a stark difference from the pristine beaches that usually come to mind when imagining the Maldives. No postcards are taken here. Lounging on the beach doesn't happen. And swimming is something to be done with caution.

    Ahmed Shafiu, 18, who lives on Guraidhoo, says his mother still throws trash away on the beach, something he admits is wrong.

    "It's not good," he said in Devehi through a translator.

    However, Shafiu and his friends said they are unwilling to pickup the trash, even if they were paid handsomely. Without a larger waste management systems spearheaded by the government locals appear to feel helpless to affect change.

    TONGA

    Further east in the Kingdom of Tonga, Emily Penn wasn't going to accept excuses for the apathetic. She had made it her mission to inspire a grass-roots movement that would leave a lasting impact. For three months, she lobbied the government to support her on her quest to clean up the beaches of Lifuka, a remote island in the Ha'apai group.

    From the governor of the island to school principals, all the way down to young people living in local villages, Penn secured permission and harnessed the enthusiasm of the entire island.

    And then on the morning of Oct. 15, it happened. With a budget of 16,000 U.S. dollars and the help of 1,200 students, 1,500 adults and 400 overseas volunteers, Penn's army picked up roughly 30 tons of trash in 10 villages, enough to fill a whole navy base.

    Penn, 22, said she was amazed at the response she received from the community.

    "They want to do something," she said. "They just don't know what."

    Part of the problem is not knowing where to put the trash once it has been collected. Along with Sustainable Coastlines, a New Zealand-based charity, Penn coordinated a shipping company to take the garbage to the dump in Nukalota.

    Penn, 22, said the Tongan government was so impressed by the movement that they said they will draft regulations to slow the amount of rubbish imported to Tonga, especially the amount of plastics, which destroy marine ecosystems.

    "Companies in New Zealand, companies in Australia, they want to make money out of the Tongans," said Penn. "They want to sell them goods, they want to sell them diapers, sell them all sorts of things, really so they can make money."

    "And it is this modernized world that has come in at an acute angle to this developing country and it's got all sorts of side effects, and creating all sorts of problems because the rest of society, it doesn't have the systems to deal with the problems that arise, that we have in the developed world," she said.

    Penn, who is from Wales, Britain, came to Tonga by sail boat in order to experience first-hand the water world she was trying to save. As a volunteer herself, Penn forfeited an income and donated her time to create change that she hopes will spread around the world.

    "We hope to take this, what we've done in Ha'apai, as a blueprint around all the other islands in Tonga, the other islands in the Pacific," she said. "Who knows how far it could go. We've done so much on no funding or budget at all, just what we've raised for the event, so you know hopefully, with a bit of support from the outside, we can take this thing global."