Voltic (GH) Limited (Voltic) and Envirinment360, an Accra-based NGO, have taken the initiative to sustainably manage the plastic bottle waste menace in Accra with the launch of a community PET waste recycling project dubbed “Evolve”.

Evolve, the pilot PET recycling venture with the goal of measuring the feasibility of a community PET waste collection scheme, as well as testing the viability of a larger scale community PET recycling programme, has been on-going for the past month.  It involves the sale and purchase of bags for households’ segregation of generated PET bottles within the Cantonment community.  The collected bottles are then sold to small-scale plastic recycling plants for recycling and export.

Speaking at the official launch of the project at Cantonment in Accra, Philip Redman, General Manager of Voltic stated that as one of the largest users of plastic bottles in Ghana, Voltic is sustainably leading the way to addressing the environmental impact of post-consumer waste through education, waste segregation and collection, important steps in the recycling process.

He remarked “PET bottles go to landfill and are washed into drains and onto the beaches when it rains but we can create value from these bottles by consciously collecting and segregating; a model that has worked very well for the sachet water industry.  

“With the launch of Evolve, we are calling for partnerships within the industry and the relevant public agencies to focus on developing a sustainable solution which is a recycling facility for PET waste.”

The Executive Director of Environment360, Cordie Aziz also noted that an estimated 13,000 tons of waste is produced in Ghana daily; 8% of which is plastic waste, which takes millions of years to decompose.

She added “Evolve does not only help to directly reduce the amount of plastic pollution in Ghana, but also helps set the parameter for potential community collection schemes.  So far about 100 individuals have bought the bags and registered for the programme with 50kilogrammes of plastic bottles collected providing a reliable baseline data for the amount of plastic waste generated inside of private residences.  We are targeting to collect 1 tonne (1000kgs) through this initial pilot phase”.

As a leading bottled natural mineral water producer, Voltic (GH) Limited has reassured its stakeholders of its continued adherence to best manufacturing processes and standards to maintain its top notch quality for consumer satisfaction as well as further helping to create a clean and sustainable world through partnerships with organisations as Environment360.

The company encouraged the general public to purchase an Evolve bag for GHS20.00, segregate their plastic bottles into the bags and dropped it off at the Kaya Market every Saturday.  Proceeds from the sale of the Evolve bags goes into funding Environment360’s year-long educational programme of empowering children to become environmental change agents.