Zoomlion to turn trash into cash

Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a waste management company, intends to turn Ghana’s trash into cash by establishing more compost plants across the country.

The company said the essence was to recycle waste into compost which would then be used by farmers as fertiliser and also exported.

A statement by Zoomlion Ghana Limited and copied to the Ghana News Agency said the Communications Manager of the company, Mr Robert Coleman, said water bottles that were usually difficult to dispose of would also be recycled into pellets for the manufacture of waste bins.

He said plastic collection centres would be created across the country for people to easily deliver their plastic materials, adding, “This is going to create jobs for people and reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.”

Mr Coleman said through the National Waste Bin Distribution (NaWaBin) programme, the company intended to distribute more than one million waste bins across the country.

The decision, he said, was to support the National Sanitation Day (NSD) geared towards instilling the habit of effective disposal of waste among Ghanaians.

He said many waste bins would be mounted at vantage points in towns, so that people could conveniently dump their waste.

On how the company was going to effectively manage waste in the Accra metropolis, Mr Coleman said it would construct transfer stations across the country and mini-transfer stations in Accra to facilitate the collection of waste in the capital.

He said Zoomlion had also acquired a dump site at Nsumia, near Nsawam, and was in the process of acquiring more of such sites across the country.

That, he said, was intended to ensure that the situation where waste was kept in houses because of inadequate dump sites would be addressed.

Mr Coleman said public education and training would be intensified this year to ensure that people changed their attitude and practised good sanitation.

He commended stakeholders in the fight for a clean nation, especially the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, for initiating the NSD to instil good sanitation practices in Ghanaians.

He assured the public of the company’s commitment to improve insanitary conditions in the country to be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on sanitation.

He advised members of the various assemblies in the country to enforce sanitation bye-laws and arrest those who flouted them and make them to pay stiffer fines to serve as a deterrent to others.

Reacting to the failure of some Ghanaians to participate in the third NSD held last Saturday across the country, Mr Coleman decried the lukewarm attitude of some Ghanaians towards the exercise.

He said it was untrue that the government paid waste contractors to collect refuse from all drains within the Accra metropolis, adding that it was the responsibility of every Ghanaian to participate in the national exercise.

He said the government, in its effort to ensure a clean environment, instituted the Environmental Sanitation Policy (ESP), which highlighted the roles of individuals and communities in sanitation management.

The policy states: “Every individual, establishment or institution shall be responsible for the cleaning within and in the immediate environs of the property they occupy, including access ways and the drains and roads abutting the property.

“Where individuals, establishments or institutions fail to discharge these responsibilities, the competent authorities shall take any necessary remedial action at the expense of those in default.

“The competent authorities shall also assume responsibility for the maintenance of specified public areas in a sanitary condition and charge fees for the use of such areas.”

Mr Coleman said the government’s initiative to fight the sanitation canker should rather be wholeheartedly embraced by the public, instead of being given the cold shoulder, adding, “It is high time people become responsible and not always relied on the government to work for them. The sanitation policy is very clear.”

On the delay in clearing refuse after the national exercise, he said measures were being put in place to ensure that waste cleared was immediately collected.

To that effect, he said Zoomlion would continue to support the government with logistics and equipment in subsequent exercises to ensure that waste cleared was collected on time.

Mr Coleman, however, called for more public education on the national exercise, adding, “People must recognise the need to keep their surroundings clean.”