Plastic manufacturers hold workshop

Accra, June 27, GNA - The Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association (GPMA) on Monday launched a four-day advocacy training workshop in Accra for stakeholders in the plastic industry.

The workshop is to engage them to come out with a national bio-degradable plastic policy.

Mr Richard Odoom, Vice President of (GPMA), said the workshop was also to find out not just a sustainable plastic waste management strategy, but also a strategy that would be environmentally friendly and very cost effective.

He said if the policy was implemented it would make plastics degradable into the environment without leaving any residue that could contaminate the environment.

Mr Odoom said studies had indicated that whereas plastics constituted less than five 5 per cent of the entire waste package, it had gained notoriety as the major pollutant due to its high visibility in the waste package, coupled with its non-degradability.

He noted that although major efforts by the GPMA to tackle the plastic waste menace threatening the environment had proved futile, they were of the hope that this technology would provide the best solution.

Mr Odoom stated that the current threats by government to ban the use of plastic would have a far reaching implication on the growing economy, adding that it had now become a cheap and convenient medium of packaging and storing.

He called on the government to have a second thought on banning the use of plastic materials, saying 93instead of banning its use, we need to educate the people on the best methods of disposing of plastic waste".