The Director of the Plastic Waste Recycling Programme, Quaranchie Adama-Tettey has advised government to consider recycling plastics instead of outrightly banning its use.
His call comes a day after President John Mahama served notice that the use of plastic will be banned in Ghana if plastic producers fail to ensure the right disposal.
[contextly_sidebar id=”81jOn0UN1eWNhbvDvg9mMUooOb0xvu1a”]Mr Adama-Tettey however argues that government will be denying the country of essential resources generated from plastics if it goes ahead to implement such a policy.
“… Plastic waste is not actually waste, it is a resource because plastic is generated from petro-chemical products which means it comes from oil so it means that if you are recycling plastics then you are converting it back to oil … Plastics are used in the production of bitumen, in the production of oil…”
“Anybody who wants to do any critical analysis of this issue should look at what plastic waste is being used for in other parts of the country .”
He recalled that in 2007 the debate for plastics to be banned reignited but “manufacturers again challenged it.”
According to him, plastic manufacturers had to rather “put value on plastic waste so that it could be recycled.”
Impose tax on plastics
He further revealed that manufacturers and other stakeholders in that same period, asked government to “impose a sustainable tax which is called the environmental tax to help set up the plastic waste fund.”
Mr. Adama-Tettey believes government can generate more revenue if it focuses on the plastic waste recycling programme.
“Government should impose a tax on plastics and government has done this since 2001 and our figures is that government has been able to raise over 65 million ghana cedis from that tax..”
According to him, if government sets up a plastic waste recycling fund with the 65 million cedis generated so far, it will be able to “give soft loans to the private sector to expand the recycling capacity.”
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah