Report to better fight plastic waste submitted to government

Accra, Feb. 8, GNA - Government on Monday received a new report on findings and recommendations of plastic waste management in Ghana expected to better fight the plastic menace.

The report, submitted by a seven member Committee chaired by Lieutenant Colonel (retired) J.H. Blood-Dzraku, based its recommendations on reviews of case studies and best practices outside Ghana as well as local experiences in the management of plastic waste.

Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), who received the report, said government would look at it in two directions; how to reduce the use of plastic in the country and how to add value to plastic waste.

She commended the Committee members, who were constituted July last year, for their commitment and devotion to the task, and assured them that something concrete would come out after it had been studied by government. The Committee terms of reference was to recommend ways to bring the plastic waste situation under control, and advice on the modalities to eliminate plastics in general and plastic bags in particular as well as improve their manufacturing and usage in Ghana. A copy of the background to the plastic situation in Ghana given to the Ghana News Agency indicates that the plastic subsector offers direct employment to 147,410 people and generates annual tax revenue of GH59.57 million to government.

It says today there are about 895 plastic manufacturing companies and sachet water manufacturers producing about 26,000 metric tones of assorted plastic products annually in the country with 90 percent of them in Accra-Tema metropolitan areas alone. Meanwhile, the document said, research has shown that plastic containers with food under high heat and frozen water bottles release Dioxin, a highly poisonous cancer causing chemical. 8 Feb. 10