Accra, Feb.01, GNA-The Ghana Recycling Initiative by Private Enterprises (GRIPE) in partnership with Premier Waste Services, has embarked on a community plastic buyback project at Buokrom in the Ashanti Region to reduce plastic pollution.
The project, is one of the initiatives of GRIPE, designed to reach low-income communities to aid them in controlling their plastic pollution problems.
Ms Louisa Kabobah, the Project Manager of GRIPE, who said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency over the plastic waste menace in the country, said the situation demanded that GRIPE partnered the Young Africans For Opportunities (YAFO) to volunteer and visit households and local shops to sensitise people on proper disposal and segregation of waste.
To combat the pollution canker, she said they encouraged them to take their plastics to a buyback center to be weighed for monies and other rewards.
“In total, about 100 residents and 30 volunteers participated in the exercise, which lasted five hours and the project team recovered about 2,035kg of plastics (pure water sachet-LDPE, HDPE and PET bottles),” she said.
The plastics would be washed, crashed into flasks, and recycled into other useful everyday products such as hair combs, chairs, water bottles, tables, and school bags among others, she said.
Ms Kabobah said GRIPE’s mission was to implement recycling and second-life solutions that reduced the impacts of post-consumer plastics on the environment.
“The Buokrom project was to enable the people to see waste, not as waste, but as a treasure that when handled properly, can serve as a major source of livelihoods for women, and the youth,” she noted.
She urged community members not to relent, but take action to keep their neighborhood clean and safe from communicable diseases and prevent plastic waste from clogging cutters and causing flooding.
Mr Edmund Arthur Brown, the Founder, and CEO of Premier Waste Services, said the company was focused on changing the narrative about plastic waste in Ghana.
“Through that, we do organise community plastic buyback programmes to educate communities on the economic and environmental impacts on plastic waste. We believe that when we come closer to the plastic waste generators themselves, we get to know their problems and how best we can help in solving it,” he explained.
In an interview with Maame Serwaa, one of the waste pickers, she said: “I have been collecting plastics for the past 20 years now. The money I make from collecting, and selling plastics to companies like Premier Waste is what I add to the money I make from my small business to buy foodstuff for the family, and school items for my children.
“I am pleading with the government, and other private companies to continue to support waste pickers so that we can collect more plastics, and help make Buokrom and Ashanti Region cleaner”.
The Ghana Recycling Initiative by Private Enterprises (GRIPE) is an industry-led coalition formed under the Association of Ghana Industries with a stake in the plastics sector to integrate sustainable long-term waste management solutions, particularly around plastics.
GRIPE was launched in 2017 by FanMilk PLC, Guinness Ghana Limited, Unilever Ghana Limited, Nestle Ghana Limited, PZ Cussons, Dow Chemical Limited, Voltic Ghana Limited, and Coca Cola Equatorial Africa.
The Accra Brewery Limited, Pernod Ricard, Mohinani Group, KGM Industries Limited, Finepack Industries Limited, and Universal Plastic Products & Recycling also joined the coalition later.
Premier Waste Services is a waste recovery start-up company based in the Ashanti Region that provides low-cost plastic waste recovery, collections and recycling infrastructure with an effective waste picker’s network in managing plastic waste in Ghana.
GNA