By Opesika Tetteh Puplampu
Sege-Ada, Aug. 30, GNA – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to establish an e-waste management centre at Sege in the Ada West District to ensure the proper collection and disposal of e-waste to prevent hazardous emissions from destroying the environment.
Mr. Larry Kotoe, the Project Coordinator for the EPA, announced this at a workshop held at Sege in collaboration with the World Bank to sensitise the public on proper management of e-waste.
Mr. Kotoe indicated that the motive behind the initiative is to prevent pollution, recover resources, and, above all, create numerous employment avenues for everyone, as waste is now being considered the new resource in the world.
According to him, five African countries, namely, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, and Senegal, are currently benefiting from the World Bank-sponsored initiative.
He added that Ghana is making headway by establishing centres within the Greater Accra, Eastern, and Northern Regions to manage and recycle e-waste.
He entreated everyone to be e-waste management-conscious to help safeguard the environment, urging stakeholders to have individual e-waste management centres where persons licensed by the EPA will come around to buy off the waste.
Mr. Kotoe announced also that an e-waste collection app, ‘GH-WASTE APP’ can be downloaded on the Google Play Store for immediate waste pick-up response, noting that the initiative was also to prevent unauthorised entities from abusing the project.
He said activities on the ‘app’ will be tracked to ascertain whether EPA is making progress or not.
He, however, cautioned the public to be mindful of importing substandard gadgets into the country and warned that such inferior items will be confiscated if found, also urging them to properly dispose of their wastes to avoid pollution.
GNA