We need more support to boost plastic waste recycling

Recycling is one of the major ways countries, including Ghana, are dealing with the plastic waste menace.

The Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association (GPMA) was the first to initiate commercial plastic waste recycling in Ghana in the year 2006, with the collection and sale of empty plastic water sachet waste business catching on.

However, the high cost of recycling makes this mode of dealing with plastic waste very expensive and unattractive.

According to GPMA, there are currently 99 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and eight medium to large-scale well-established companies and 27 cottage industries in plastic recycling doing over 241,530 metric tonnes of flexible and rigid plastics annually.

The association also has 46 SMEs and two large-scale companies in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a type of polyester used for making plastic bottles, recycling, and doing about 8,760 metric tonnes of mainly PET Flakes, annually.

In spite of the efforts of these SMEs, only about 9.5 per cent of plastic waste is recycled annually in the country. Recycling aims to remould the discarded plastics into other plastic materials that are beneficial, such as PET bottles, chairs and components for the manufacturing industry.

It is in view of the challenges in the plastics recycling sector that we find the selection of eight SMEs that are into recycling plastics for a $4.05 million grant under the pilot phase of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) gratifying.

We are of the view that with the grant, the operations of the selected SMEs: Pure Home Water (PHW), McKingtorch Africa, Coliba Waste Management Services Limited, ⁠Management Sustainability Africa (MSA), Consortium members (Asase Foundation, Sesa Recycling, City Waste Recycling), Universal Plastic Product Recycling (UPPR), Integrated Recycling and Compost Plant Limited (IRECOP) and Nelplast Eco Ghana Limited, will be greatly boosted.

Howbeit, the number of 99 SMEs in the country’s plastic recycling sector suggests that the support is like a drop in the ocean, as 91 more SMEs have been left out while the attempt of four others to access the GEF grant failed.

What’s more, all but one of the eight SMEs that have received the green light for the grant are sited in Accra, meaning that apart from the coastal area, no SME in the middle and northern part of the country is a beneficiary of this latest support.

The main aim of the GEF grant is to help create a circular economic framework in the country, which is what recycling is meant to do – ensure that we create less waste to pollute the environment.

We are especially excited that the grant will go to aid the UPPR, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies, to become the first company to secure equipment to expand into the recycling of PET bottles, in addition to its high molecular density plastics recycling activity, and thereby create a circular economy around PET bottles.

Plastic waste pollution is a major environmental challenge in the country, with about 840,000 tonnes generated annually.

The Greater Accra Region alone generates about 300 tonnes of plastic waste daily (109,500 tonnes annually), while approximately 450,167 tonnes of waste is generated annually in Kumasi, with 16.5 per cent being plastic waste, which is roughly 74,269 tonnes (1,200 tonnes daily).

Of the 1,200 tonnes of plastic waste generated in Kumasi, only 65 per cent is collected, leaving the 35 per cent on the streets, landfills and other parts of the environment.

These statistics indicate that we need a holistic approach to solve the plastic waste menace, one of which is recycling.

We, therefore, pray the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, to continue with his active engagement with the beneficiary SMEs to release the funds to enable them to expand their operations.

We also urge that the total of $7 million earmarked for the entire project being implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) through the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), is released timeously to the beneficiary SMEs so the impact of the grant is felt by all.

Recycling, the Daily Graphic believes, is one of the key ways to prevent plastics from littering and staying in our soils for as long as 1,000 years due to their non-biodegradable nature, and polluting our environment.