MESTI initiates policy to ensure effective waste management
The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) has completed a draft policy framework for effective coordination of waste management efforts in the country.
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Mr Boachie and the Acting Chief Director of MESTI, Mrs Levina Korama Owusu, are leading a 20-member delegation of Ghanaians in the plastic waste management value chain to a five-day study tour in Germany to learn about the models and efforts Germany’s city of Bonn and the North Rhine
He explained that the environment and technology sector ministry deemed a coordinated plastic waste management system a critical framework to ensure that various interventions by individuals and companies in plastic waste management yielded sustainable results.
“In Ghana now, we have those who are adding plastic waste to sand to make pavement blocks; we have an individual who produces diesel out of plastic waste. But they are doing these with little coordination and without sustainable policies, so they remain isolated cases and will not yield the best results,” Mr Boachie stressed.
Study tour
The study tour is part of a project MESTI is undertaking with the support of the German government through its international development agency, GIZ.
The Sustainable Management of Plastic Waste in Ghana project went live in January this year with a sensitisation programme and this study tour is expected to build the capacity of players in the value chain on best practices in Germany, especially the business models that exist.
Upon return, the next phase of the project will be the selection of cities to pilot the lessons on how to use technology to manage plastic waste. Accra and Kumasi are being considered for the pilot.
“We anticipate that the policy will be completed by the end of 2018, and laid before Parliament for passage into law. We are also working with international organisations to ensure partnerships and collaboration in the management of waste, especially ocean waste,” he stated.
Delegation
The delegation is made up of a fair representation of the plastic waste value chain actors.
They included officials from MESTI, private waste management companies, a plastic chemical production company, a PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) user companies, municipal assemblies, academia and civil society.
Private sector perspective
The Chief Executive Officer of waste management company J. Stanley-Owusu Company Ltd, Mr William Stanley-Owusu, who is part of the delegation, said the study brought home the need to create public awareness on waste separation at source.
“The focus for me should be our ability to separate our organic waste from our waste stream. With this we’ll have cleaner and
The Corporate Affairs and Communications Manager of Voltic (Gh) Ltd, Mrs Joyce Mateko Sackitey Ahiadorme, said it was clear that plastic waste management was a shared responsibility and not just the burden of the government.
“For Germany, it has taken them about 40 years to get their recycling of waste right. They have also been able to incentivise the private sector for them to collect waste and find recycling attractive and the knowledge base of their citizens is quite high.”
Mrs Ahiadorme, therefore, called for a collaboration among the stakeholders to foster an effective ecosystem in the management of waste, particularly plastic waste recycling, to ensure