ECOWAS MPs visit Accra Compost and Recycling Plant
Legislators of joint committees from the ECOWAS Parliament have paid a field visit to the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant at Adjen Kotoku in the Greater Accra Region to familiarise themselves with the company’s work.
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The Members of Parliament (MPs) from the committees on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Energy and Mines, as well as Infrastructure, were at the plant to acquaint themselves with recycling of liquid and solid waste, especially plastics.
The visit last Wednesday led by the Chairman of the Committee on Infrastructure, Mamadou Sako, formed part of activities earmarked for the four-day delocalised meeting of joint committees the delegation is attending in Winneba from July 30 to August 3, 2024.
Tour
During the tour of the plant with a processing capacity of 600 tonnes per day, the MPs witnessed at first-hand, how modern technology waste sorting and composting facility in West Africa received, treated and processed urban waste.
They were exposed to reusable end products such as organic manure, plastic pellets, recyclable products such as papers, metal scraps for both local and international markets.
Adding value to waste
Briefing the legislators on the operations, the Managing Director (MD) of ACARP, Micheal Padi Tuwor, said currently not all waste generated in Accra were sent to the plant for processing, with others taken to various landfill sites.
He said most of the waste, lifted from sources such as homes, marketplaces, streets, came in not separated.
“So, the material comes in as a raw material and then it leaves our premises as a product. In instances where we are not able to finish a product like in the case of compost, the plastics are semi-processed for local plastic manufacturing companies,” he said.
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Until 2023, the MD said, all the plastic waste recovered were consumed locally, with the exception of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which were exported to Europe for the manufacturing of synthetic fibre and others.
He, however, said recently there were companies in Ghana that were also consuming PET and “so we no longer export them”.
Mr Tuwor told the delegation that close to about seven per cent to 11 per cent waste the company received included textiles; the company was unable to use them for anything.
That, together with plastics such as bottles and combustible materials, such as leather, shoes and bags, were recovered as residual wastes that were kept on the plant’s landfill for the production of refuse-derived fuel, an energy substitute material that could extensively be applied in the energy and cement industry.
The material, he said, could also be used for boilers instead of the use of residual fuel oil.
“Once we are able to do that then it means close to 95 per cent to 97 per cent of all the waste that come here are processed into another product,” he said.
Eye-opener
After the tour, Mr Sako said the visit to the facility was an “eye-opener” for the MPs from the ECOWAS Parliament.
He, therefore, expressed the hope that the best sustainable waste management being adopted by Ghana could be initiated in other member states to reduce the menace of plastic to the environment and water bodies.