The recycling enterprise of the Gatavai Village Youths is led by its Church Minister who created the initiative to address the rising youth unemployment rate in its village. In addition, the motivation behind the social enterprise was to also cater to and assist the youth of the Gatavai village to care for their families particularly the unemployed males. The initiative produces 2 types of recycled outdoor furniture i.e. upcycled tyre outdoor furniture and natural outdoor furniture made from discarded wood/tree cuttings. The Gatavai furniture sells for $500 a set (including its tyre furniture which are all sold out) and make about $300 in profit given that most of the resources used are recycled or secondhand materials. Some challenges to the upscaling of this initiative includes but is not limited to the following i.e. · Limited marketing capabilities means that the enterprise does not have a foothold in the current market share to promote its products to all of Samoa; and · Limited time and resources of the Church Minister to conduct continuous training of its young people in the trade skills necessary to create its products.

There are about 92-95 young males involved in this social enterprise. 20 young men assist with the Gatavai Youth Recycle Enterprise. In addition to recycling and upcycling tyres, they also reuse discarded wood/tree cuttings to construct natural outdoor furniture. The enterprise not only provide income generation and trade skills capacity building but it also contributes to mitigating climate change by promoting and preventing the burning of tyres in the communities.

The Gatavai Village Youth Social Enterprise is an example of community cohesion and its impact on a larger scale. The enterprise is largely supported in kind by its Church Minister and Village Council and due to its primary business of collecting old and used tyres for its recycling, this has enabled its youth population to promote and push for eco-friendly land clearing practices for agricultural purposes as opposed to families burning the tyres as a method to clear land of vegetation and so forth. In addition, the enterprise has garnered support from its local mechanics and have formed partnerships where the local initiative are able to procure its tyres from the local mechanics who collect and set aside allocated quantities for the enterprise.

Gatavai is a village located on the biggest island that comprises Samoa called Savaii. To get to Gatavai, Savaii, one must take a ferry trip across the ocean that takes about 1.5 hours. Pictured also are some of the outdoor furniture that the youths create from discarded wood/tree cuttings.