Fearing that his over 60 direct and 500 indirect staff will lose their jobs someday, 33-year-old Nelson Boateng came up with a plan; a business to sustain his team.

Government’s quest to overcome plastic waste led to a possible plan of banning the use of polythene shopping bags in Ghana.

This would have made Ghana like Kenya where the use of plastic disposable bags has been banned totally.

"Since I produce plastic bags and have a lot of people working with me, I couldn’t just sit down and watch all of them lose their job should the ban happen.’’ Nelson said.

Water sachet, plastic bottles, broken plastic bucket and even plastic toffee wrappers are all parts of the waste that Nelson is making money from.

Turning waste into pavement blocks

With the knowledge he gathered during his teen years as a factory hand in a plastic manufacturing company, Nelson managed to build a machine that melts the sand and plastic mixture to form the paste for the block production.

1D1F

For now, Nelson is hoping that government would rope him in the one district one factory program.

‘‘Government is aware of our pavement block production. Although I have applied for the one district one factory program, I am yet to hear from the government,’’ he told Joy Business.

According to the UN Developing Programme Ghana produces 1.7 million tonnes of plastic waste annually with the capital Accra producing 300 tonnes daily.

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