The Ghana Recycling Initiative by Private Enterprises (GRIPE) in collaboration with SESA Recycling Limited has commemorated the 2022 Global Recycling Day in Agona Swedru with a community plastic buyback event.
Prior to the day of the event, which took place on March 19, 2022, a series of sensitizations and awareness campaigns were made in suburbs like Jukwa, Ekwamkrom, as well as the Golden Star FM station in Swedru to educate the community members on the importance of waste segregation.
The education also touched on how people could segregate their plastic waste from other waste for money and incentives.
The 2022 Global Recycling Day, which was marked under the theme “recycling fraternity”, saw indigenes of Agona Swedru bring in used plastic from their various homes to the collection center.
Volunteers also visited homes to pick up from individuals who were unable to carry the picked plastic materials to the collection center, Osama Lorry Station in Agona Swedru, Central Region for weighing.
Ms. Louisa Kabobah, the Project Manager on GRIPE, speaking at the sideline of the event, remarked that “GRIPE’s mission is to implement sustainable recycling and second-life solutions that reduce the impacts of post-consumer plastic waste on the environment”.
She said the Global Recycling Day was a great opportunity to leverage on GRIPE’s good working relationships with local communities to further strengthen actions, and encourage people to be part of the solution to plastic waste, and not the pollution.
Plastics itself, she noted, “is not the problem, it is our attitude to how we use it that makes it such a problem material. We need to rethink our throw-away attitude towards plastics. People need to reuse, reduce, and subsequently recycle, or better still, upcycle plastics. This will ensure that any used plastics cannot make their way into the ocean”.
She further explained that “we can transition effectively into the plastic circular economy, and contribute to sustaining life below water, and on land”.
While urging people to see plastics as treasure, rather than waste, Ms. Kabobah reiterated that plastics can serve as an additional source of income for people, especially women, and youth in Agona Swedru.
“Recycling a plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60-watt lightbulb, hence the need to recycle to conserve energy”.
In advising community members not to relent on their efforts towards keeping the neighbourhood clean, and safe from communicable diseases, Ms. Kabobah added that the plastic buyback project was a good initiative that has since its inception, contributed to retrieving several metric tonnes of plastic waste from the environment for recycling, which would have otherwise, clogged gutters and contributed to flooding.
Speaking at the same event, the Director of Operations for SESA Recycling Limited, Mr. Christopher Gyan Mensah bemoaned the low level of education on waste segregation and its importance.
He said there was the need for organisations responsible for public education to conduct some forms of education for individuals, especially students at the basic level, to help inculcate this habit in them even as they grow.
The move, he believes, will help reduce plastic pollution in communities and the nation at large.
One of the waste pickers who attended the event, Madam Adwoa said: “I have been collecting plastics for the past 10 years. I used to be a petty trader but since I started picking plastics, I realized I was making more money from it compared to the petty trader. Hence, I am now a full plastic waste picker. The money I make from collecting and selling plastics is enough to cater for the daily needs of my family and to pay the school fees of my children. I am pleading with the government, and other private companies to continue to support waste pickers so that we can collect more plastics, and help make the streets of Agona Swedru, and Ghana cleaner”.
The community plastic buyback event is one of GRIPE’s initiatives, designed to reach low-income generating communities to raise understanding on waste management, and the social, and economic values of post-consumer plastics. The concept is based on the understanding that people could exchange plastics for cash or consumables by separating and selling their post-consumer plastics.
In all, a total of 1407 kg of PET bottles, HDPE plastics, and LDPE were recovered from communities within Agona Swedru.
Ms. Kabobah who lauded the people of Agona Swedru for coming out in their numbers to actively participate in the event said the plastics will be thoroughly washed, and crashed into flasks by the Sesa Recycling Limited for recycling into other useful everyday products.
The Ghana Recycling Initiative by Private Enterprises (GRIPE) is an industry-led coalition formed under the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) with a stake in the plastics sector, to integrate long-term sustainable waste management solutions, particularly around plastics. GRIPE was launched in 2017 by Fan Milk PLC, Guinness Ghana Limited, Unilever Ghana PLC, Nestle Ghana Limited, PZ Cussons, Dow Chemical Limited, Voltic (GH) Limited, and Coca Cola Equatorial Africa.
The Accra Brewery Limited, Pernod Ricard, Mohinani Group, KGM Industries Limited, Finepack Industries Limited, and Universal Plastic Products & Recycling have since joined the coalition. GRIPE builds strong, long-lasting partnerships with NGOs, community groups, funding agencies, media, academia, private sector, and government agencies working on research, education, advocacy, waste collection, or recycling, to keep plastics in the economy, but out of the environment.
SESA Recycling Limited is a waste recovery company based in the Greater Accra region that provides low-cost plastic waste recovery, collections, and recycling infrastructure with an effective waste pickers network in managing plastic waste in Ghana.