Plastic waste to be exported

Accra, April 22, GNA - Mr Divine Otoo, Chairman of the National Plastic Waste Management Taskforce, on Friday announced that plastic waste generated in the country would be exported to some recycling companies in China and America to help solve the plastic waste menace. He said an export contract had already been secured and they needed enough of the plastic waste to export outside the country. Mr Otoo was speaking at a forum that brought together Assembly Members in the Greater Accra Region to inform and educate them on how they could contribute to the success of the programme.

The programme dubbed: "Operation Chase the Plastic Waste" would be launched on April 30, this year, where Assembly members would be urged to help to collect the plastic waste in their various electoral areas to the collection point for export.

Mr Otoo said: "The situation is not a hopeless one, there is a solution. The plastic menace is a challenge that when well managed would bring opportunities to the country."

He said Assembly Members should employ people within their areas to collect the plastic waste for export and said currently the company needed more of the plastic waste to export.

Mr Otoo, who is also the Managing Director of COB-A Industries Limited, producers of the Standard Drinking Water, said the Taskforce was considering the export option because the volume of plastic waste being generated in the country far exceeded the capacity of recycling companies in the country.

About two hundred thousand kilograms of plastic waste is generated on a daily base in Accra alone, he said.

For collection to be easy, Mr Otoo urged commercial drivers to place litterbins in their vehicles and present the plastic waste generated in their vehicle to the exporters for a fee.

An educational programme to educate the public about the export option would start next week, he announced.

He called on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to enforce its laws on littering; adding that banning the use of plastic in Ghana was not a pleasant option to consider.

"Sachet water producers alone use an estimated volume of 200 tonnes of plastic containers per day for their activities and the industries employ not less than 5,000 people not to mention its contribution to the national purse in the form of taxes," he said. Mr Otoo urged the public to learn to be environmentally friendly and to change their attitude towards plastic waste disposal.