Gov’t To Address Plastic Menace

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that the government has prepared a plastic management policy with the overarching aim of managing plastic menace comprehensively.

The policy, when implemented would recover and recycle 82 per cent of plastic waste with existing technology into value-addition product in high demand locally and with West African sub-region.

Delivering the State of the Nation’s Address on Thursday in Accra, President Akufo-Addo said an extensive discussion was being concluded with investors on the most sustainable ways available.

A vibrant recycling industry in Ghana could recover nearly one million tonnes of waste plastics from the environment and landfills annually to be recycled into basic need products valued GHC 2 million, a year as well as create jobs.

“…Plastic filth is one of our biggest problem and we want to solve the problem with an international approach of reduction, reuse, recover, recycle,” he said.

Going forward, President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance that people who littered and those who stole refuse bins would be prosecuted.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo further announced that the construction of a state-of-the-art recycling facility at Agbogbloshie will commence in April.

The move, he said would help to solve the problem of waste disposal in an environmentally-friendly manner and create over 20,000 direct jobs, through the establishment of associated holding centres in each regional capital and collection centres in each district.

He stated that the facility formed part of government’s efforts towards addressing the problem of electronic waste comprehensively.

Touching on open defecation, the President said it was unfortunate that, in 2019, the country had to revisit this topic saying open defecation could not be a characteristic of a country that was working to be transformed economically and to be counted amongst the developed nations of the world.

President Akufo-Addo, said government together with stakeholders last year, built 35,862 household toilets to ensure access to toilet and reduce open defecation.

At the district level, he said the Community Led Total Sanitation Programme was being implemented in over 4,500 communities in 130 districts to achieve Open Defecation Free Communities.

President Akufo-Addo stated that the government and partners would continue to educate and sensitise people, on the need to stop open defecation as well as enforce the bye-laws to ensure cleanliness.