The Africa Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management (K—AISWAM) has entred into a partnership with Universal Plastic Products Recycling (UPPR), a private plastic recycling company, to promote plastic recycling awareness in Ghana.

Announcing the new partnership, the Institute urged individuals, schools, government agencies and institutions to collect and store their plastic waste for sale at the Buy-Back-Centers which UPPR is setting up all around the country.

As part of the partnership, the Institute also indicated its readiness to use its expertise and its state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities to promote training and research that provide new insights into locally approaches to plastic waste recycling.

The Buy-Back-Centers, according to the Institute, will offer money for the collection of plastic waste and will serve as avenues for behavioral and altitudinal changes towards plastic waste in particular. People will begin to appreciate the economic value in plastic waste and will have both reason and incentive to collect, store and sell the waste they generated. It will also serve as employment opportunities for many, especially the youth.

The Provost of the Institute, Professor Ernest Yanful, notes that “Ghana faces a waste crisis which needs urgent and innovative responses from all sectors of our society. Plastic waste has become pervasive, it is a social and ecological nuisance, and a real menace that is threatening not only our environment, but also public safety and public health. This initiative will not only improve sanitation in our communities it will also bring sanity to the economy”.

Dr. Bob Offei Manteaw, the Director of Research, Innovation and Development of the Institute, indicated that the “current rainy season and associated floods recorded in parts of Accra and elsewhere in the country provide ample evidence of the dangers of improper waste management. Indiscriminate disposal of waste end up clogging our waterways and contribute to the kinds of disastrous floods we see in our urban communities and their attendant threats to human health and ecosystems.”

The Floods, according to Dr. Manteaw “will become even more frequent and extreme due to current climate change projections and will likely also result in more disasters if the necessary steps are not taken to manage waste properly in our communities.”