A $75,000 pilot project to tackle plastic waste pollution in the country is to begin from January next year.
It is the “Phase II of the Plastic Waste Pilots in Ghana” under the umbrella project “Further Actions to Address Plastic Waste under the Basel Convention.”
The one-year programme to be implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) in collaboration with BRS Convention, with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and BRS Convention.
Speaking at a stakeholders workshop on the project in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate at MESTI, Ms Abena Afriyie Appiah, said the pilot project was a sequel to a similar project which was carried out between 2018 and 2023.
She said the first phase involved six pilot projects on fish-net recycling, beach clean-ups, citizen science surveys, water vending machines, micro plastics, plastic-free schools, reusable bags, and edible and compostable packing.
The Deputy Director further explained that the second phase was to scale up the achievements in the first phase of the pilot project, and create a deeper and more sustainable impact.
She indicated that the phase II would cover pilot projects on plastic-free-schools, water vending machine and edible, and compostable packaging taking into account lessons learned from the previous pilot project.
The Deputy Director of PPMED of MESTI said the second phase which would end in January 2025 was expected to reduce plastic waste pollution in the country.
According to her, those pilot projects were not only critical for promoting the environmentally sound management of plastic waste, but also contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 14.1 which was focused on reducing marine pollution.
Moreover, Ms Appiah explained that the plastic-free-schools was geared towards behavioural change, getting on board school children to understand why they should separate their plastics from the organic waste.
She said when plastics got into the environment, it took thousands of years for them to decompose, and it had harmful effects on the microorganisms within the environment.
She stated that the plastic-free-school was geared towards teaching school children how to separate at source, so that in their schools, they would know that we don’t put plastics among organic waste.
“After they have separated, we will encourage them to understand that these plastics have economic value. They are not just waste. So we move them to processing sites where the plastics will be recycled into tote bags, pencil cases, backpacks, raincoats. Instead of them seeing the plastics as waste, they’ll rather see that it’s of economic value,” Ms Appiah stated.
On the water vending machine, the Deputy Director of PPMED of MESTI, noted that water vending machines would be placed at strategic places such as the Junction Mall at Nungua for people to buy and drink instead of buying sachet water.
Ms Appiah on the edible composting packaging materials said under the pilot project, MESTI would promote the use of biodegradable materials for food packaging in some restaurants in Accra.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
