Helping clear Accra of plastic waste

Petroplast limited buys & recycles the waste

Petroplast Limited is a plastic and polythene packaging company based in Accra. It has also veered into plastic waste management involving the collection of plastic and polythene waste, and recycling it into other useful plastic products.

The company’s recycling operation is part of efforts to help especially the city authorities and also government address the problems of plastic waste which has plagued the country.

Managing Director Mustafa Kunt told dailyEXPRESS on a recent visit that the idea was conceived last year after the Accra Metropolitan Assembly threatened to halt the operations of plastic producing companies in an attempt to address the crisis.

Mr. Kunt says various plastic manufacturers came together and strategised to address the problem, finally taking a decision to go into plastic waste recycling.

Petroplast commenced its recycling operation three months ago with financial support from First Atlantic Merchant Bank, but the company has since October last year been collecting plastic waste from the streets.

The company’s operations have created over three thousand direct and indirect jobs within the last three months only.

Raw materials are collected from twenty-two other collection points in the city, from the schools and other plastic producing companies. The waste is purchased at a cost of ¢2,000 per kilogram.

“We are collecting the waste from factories which are into polythene packaging, plastic bottle production, and water sachet producers, from end users and we are collecting used water sachets which are thrown away. We even collect from the gutters” says Kunt.

Mr. Kunt explained that all kinds of plastic wastes are collected irrespective of their state. After collection, the recycle process starts with the filtering of raw materials to separate unwanted substances from the polythene. This is followed by rigorous washing and sterilization of the raw material before putting them into the granulating machine for proper recycling work to begin.

The granules, which are the end products of granulation, also serve as raw materials for the processing of other plastic products. The granules are sold back to plastic producing companies in the country for processing.

The Petroplast MD disclosed that they are planning to begin the export of the granules soon. It is also working on plans to extend operations to Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale.

Just like the AMA, Petroplast hopes to get support from other municipal and metropolitan assemblies once its operations outside Accra take off.

According to him, the idea to recycle plastic waste puts the country in a very advantageous position as raw materials [granules] for the production of polythene will no longer be imported but produced domestically.

“There are recycled granules and original granules imported from outside. The main advantage of what we are doing for the country is helping decrease the importation of raw material.”

He appealed to end users of sachet water and other plastic materials to contact Petroplast to help them manage plastic waste instead of making debris of them which consequently becomes a problem for the city authorities.