Accra, Feb. 4, GNA – Madam Sandra Owusu Ahinkorah, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) Ayawaso West, has called on stakeholders in the waste industry to prioritise the recycling of plastic waste for revenue generation.
She said the country’s failure to manage plastic waste effectively had led to plastic pollution, making the environment unclean and unsafe.
The MCE said this on Thursday in Accra at the commissioning of a Bus Shelter Project, constructed by Mckingtorch Africa from recycled and upcycled plastic waste with support from Geodrill Ghana, and the research assistance by the Academic City University.
She said plastics were the most resourceful materials that the country could use in everyday life and that their prevalence means the population would have large amounts of waste to dispose of after use.
Ms Ahinkorah stated that the unfortunate part about plastic disposal was that, it was thrown into landfills along with other waste, stressing that Studies suggest that, plastics took as long as 500–100 years to degrade back into the environment.
“As the first beneficiary Municipality, we will provide the necessary support to the project and ensure it was replicated at the major bus stops within the Municipality. We will continue to lead in development and serve as a benchmark for other Municipalities,” she said.
She implored the citizenry to keep the environment clean, adding that the needed laws on cleaning, greening our frontage had been passed and enforcement had begun.
Ms Ahinkorah urged all to do the needful to achieve the goal on environmental cleanliness to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
She commended Mckingtorch Africa for the initiative and the support of all stakeholders, urging other companies to be innovative and drive the transformational change in waste management.
Mr Makafui Awuku, the Chief Executive Officer, Mckingtorch Africa, said the project was a self-sustaining initiative and even though without support from donors, the project could run on its own because of the installation and the advertising space.
That, he stated would allow companies interested in sustainability to pay for the company to do the installations for them, adding “we are bent on pushing the recycling agenda and keeping the plastic waste out of our environment.”
Mr Awuku said the company would engage with the Assembly and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to get more spaces for the installations, not just in Accra but also around the country in keeping the environment clean.
Professor Fred Bagonluri, President of Academic City, said even though sustainability had been a challenge in the waste industry, technology would address the situation by turning something into a useful state.
“We complain that there is no job, if you are company and wasn’t to make money, then you need to innovate and the biggest partner of innovation is academia to refine ideas for greater impact,” he said.
He disagreed with the assertion that Universities were not producing the right set of people, stressing that producing students for the market was not only the responsibility of the Universities but a joint effort.
GNA