Kumasi Technical University to ban use of polythene bags
The Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) has initiated the process to ban the use of polythene bags on campus and promote the use of biodegradable packs.
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The university is also considering separating waste generated for recycling and will, therefore, be placing coloured waste bins at vantage points on campus to collect glass, plastic and paper waste.
Furthermore, the university also intends to produce tissue and toilet roll from its own paper waste.
Green Campus Project
The initiative forms part of the Green Campus Project of the university, an ongoing partnership between Ghana and Germany to build the capacity of the technical university in renewable energy and sustainable engineering.
Dubbed ‘Partnership for Applied Science (PASS) Project’, it started in October this year and will run till June 2021.
The KsTU and the Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU) are the two Ghanaian technical universities taking part in the project, in collaboration with three German technical universities.
As part of the project, each technical university is to select a project for implementation.
Challenges
Briefing a visiting team from Germany on the project at a three-day capacity-building workshop held yesterday, Dr Bernard Effah, a member of the project team, indicated that banning the use of polythene on campus would pose challenges.
He said the university generated close to 19 kilogrammes of waste daily with a substantial amount being plastic waste.
Solar hotspots
Dr Effah said the project also sought to build two solar hotpots of five kilowatts (5KwH) for students to use to charge their mobile phones and laptops.
“This is to reduce the university’s dependency on the national grid and to promote clean and green renewable energy,” he said.
Renewable energy
Prof. Dr Thorsten Schneiders from the Kohn University said the partnership between Ghana and Germany was mainly for knowledge transfer.
He said under the project, experts in renewable energy from Germany would build the capacity of the universities in Ghana to enable them to develop courses in the sector.
According to him, the technology and knowledge transfers could only be achieved through projects, and he was hopeful that the proposals made by the university could get funding for implementation.
