INFRASTRUCTURE | ANALYSIS
Ghana: Going from managing waste to a circular economy
At Plastics Recycling World Expo on 3-4 June 2020 in Essen, Germany, a delegation of the Ghanaian plastics and recycling industry will discuss development priorities. In this article, the group’s technical partner in the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia outlines progress being made in Ghana’s plastics recycling sector
Even though the waste collected in Ghana more than doubled nationwide between 2006 and 2013, the share still remains at a low level. According to the Sustainable Development Goals Baseline Report from 2018, even in cities only around one-third of the growing quantities of waste is taken to dumpsites and the few sanitary landfills whose capacities are becoming increasingly scarce. A considerable portion is simply burnt under an open sky. Due to poor solid waste manage- ment, plastic waste like sachet water bags, water bottles, food boxes from Styrofoam and any amount of plastic bags is wide- spread on roadsides, clogging drains and littering beaches, causing health and flood risks. To turn such challenges into opportunities, the Ghanaian government is determined to leapfrog from waste disposal to a circular economy. In October 2019, as the first African nation, Ghana formally joined the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), an initiative launched by the World Economic Forum and supported, amongst others, by the Development Programme of the United Nations (UNDP).
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
PET bottles are collected from beaches for recycling Since 2007, the German
federal state North Rhine- Westphalia has maintained a partnership with Ghana, bringing together govern- ment institutions, universi- ties, local governments, NGOs and companies from both sides. The German technical cooperation, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internation- ale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), has played a prominent role in shaping the collaboration around climate and resource protection through projects supported financially by the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia. Against this background, it was more than logical that GIZ took up the request from the Ghanaian Ministry for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) to develop a project
on sustainable management of plastics and to convene an international stakeholder forum in January 2018 in Accra. The main aim: To discuss with competent stakeholders the ministry’s first draft of a national plastics policy and to contribute experience gained in this field in Germany. Looking back, this forum has generated a strong momentum and raised public awareness for the urgency of tackling the challenges related to plastic littering the environment. As part of the project, GIZ piloted in collaboration with the local NGO Environ- ment360 and with informal scrap dealers in Kumasi an incentive and take-back scheme to test a viable business model for recover- ing PET bottles littering the
environment for recycling. PET bottles were chosen because even the informal waste pickers did not show interest in collecting them due to their volume and low weight. Having successfully tested the scheme, it can now be used for upscaling and including other types of plastics as well. To make representatives
from private and public sector more familiar with the political framework condi- tions and technical options for managing the plastic value chain in a circular economy, GIZ organized in June 2018 a technical visit for a delegation from Ghana to North Rhine-Westphalia. On the occasion of
WACEE’19, the West African Clean Energy and Environ- ment fair and conference in Accra, MESTI and GIZ
November/December 2019 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 27
IMAGES: MICHAEL FUNCKE-BARTZ
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
