‘Provide policy on separation of waste’
The President of the National Reuse and Recyclers Association (NARRA), Mr Eric Pappoe, has urged the government to put in place the enabling framework that would make way for the establishment of a waste separation policy with an enforcement statute, in order to facilitate the activity of reusing and recycling of waste in the country.
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He said the lack of such a policy was not only contributing to the failure of waste management efforts in the country but was also making the work of waste recyclers difficult, expensive and unsustainable.
Mr Pappoe made the call at the end of a four-day capacity-building training workshop for members of NARRA.
He disclosed that in the light of the recent cholera outbreak, the current practice where all types of waste materials were lumped together and dumped in landfill sites had health implications for waste recyclers in the country.
“International best practice has taught us to separate the different types of waste that we generate. As such we are supposed to have plastic, liquid, e-waste and biodegradable waste in different containers, but this is not the case in Ghana,” he said.
He said because waste was not sorted, recycling companies had had to employ people who collect and segregated them manually.
Under the prevailing situation, Mr Pappoe said, recycling companies were also faced with the challenge of having materials of different waste category lumped together and getting stuck in recycling machines, resulting in frequent breakdowns. He said that phenomenon increased the cost of operation and maintenance.
A facilitator at the workshop, Mr Joseph Awantungo, disclosed that the way waste was being managed in the country was driving away many potential investors from the industry.
“The formulation of an effective national waste separation policy, as well as behavioural change and implementation of an effective communication strategy, will encourage people to separate waste into recyclable groups right from the points of waste creation and also establish clear transmission lines for various waste materials in the country,” he added.