The Africa Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (K-AISWAM), has announced a partnership with Universal Plastic Products Recycling (UPPR), a private plastic recycling company.<\/p>\n
Announcing the partnership, which is expected to help promote plastic recycling awareness in Ghana, the Institute urged individuals, schools, government agencies and institutions to collect and store their plastic waste and then sell them at \u00a0Buy-Back-Centers, which UPPR is setting up all around the country.<\/p>\n
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 attitudinal changes towards plastic waste in particular.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It will also serve as employment opportunities for many, especially the youth.<\/p>\n
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 provides new insights into locally-appropriate approaches to plastic waste recycling.<\/p>\n
The Provost of the Institute, Professor Ernest Yanful, said that, \u201cGhana faces a waste crisis which needs urgent and innovative responses from all sectors of our society.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlastic 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis initiative will not only improve sanitation in our communities, it will also bring sanity to the economy.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Reiterating the challenges of plastic waste in Ghanaian communities, particularly in urban ones, Dr. Bob Offei Manteaw, the Director of Research, Innovation and Development of the Institute, indicated that, \u201cThe current rainy season and associated floods recorded in parts of Accra and elsewhere in the country provides ample evidence of the dangers of improper waste management.<\/p>\n
Indiscriminate disposal of waste ends up clogging our waterways and contributes to the kinds of disastrous floods we see in our urban communities and their attendant threats to human health and ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The floods, according to Dr. Manteaw \u201cwill 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Manteaw believes that the initiative is a \u00a0huge step towards helping to mitigate these challenges and to ensure improved sanitation in the communities and reiterated the hope of\u00a0 an attitudinal change with regards to the handling of waste by residents of the communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new partnership promises to help institutionalize a culture of value addition to waste while at the same time enhancing sanitation in our communities, added Dr. Manteaw.<\/p>\n
He further expressed his excitement with developing partnerships such as this one between the Institute and UPPR which he believed could bring lasting benefits to society.<\/p>\n
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Credit: Zoomlion<\/p>\n
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The Africa Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (K-AISWAM), has announced a partnership with Universal Plastic Products Recycling (UPPR), a private plastic recycling company. Announcing the partnership, which is expected to help promote plastic recycling awareness in Ghana, the Institute urged individuals, schools, government agencies and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":25186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[16,17],"yoast_head":"\n