Plastics have not been banned - Ayariga

Mahama Ayariga, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation on Tuesday said the sale and use of plastics have not been banned.

“Plastics are very convenient for packaging and Ghana as a country cannot do away with them. What we have agreed on with the plastic manufacturers is to increase the micronage of plastics from 20 microns and above to allow for easy recycling. We are also planning to add bio-degradable addictive to the plastic materials so it could degrade faster,” Mr Ayariga said.

Speaking at the meet-the-press series in Accra, Mr Ayariga clarified that the stakeholders had also agreed that all flexible plastics below 20 microns produced in the country or imported, including those used for water sachets and carrier bags of the said microns would not be allowed from November 1, 2015.

He said it has also been agreed that all stock of flexible plastics would have to be cleared in three months, beginning August 1, 2015 to October 31, 2015, whilst from November 1, all flexible plastics produced in the country would have bio-degradable addictive to make them easy to manage.

Again, it was agreed that all flexible plastic products should be labelled with the manufacturers’ name, logo, date and location of the company for easy identification where necessary, whilst the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been directed to enforce the relevant provisions to ensure that the plastic directives were complied with to bring sanity to the environment.

Mr Ayariga said with such measures being put in place, the issue of the management of plastic waste, which has bedevilled the country with a number of challenges, including the use of poor technology, inadequate governance and negative attitude of the people in its use and disposal, would be a thing of the past.