Solution To Plastic Waste Menace In Sight

By Edmund Mingle
Monday, 16 March 2009

Three days after the Vice President’s hint of a possible ban on plastic production if the plastic waste menace was not checked, the plastic producers in the country have responded with a solution.
They have brought into the country, scientific and plastic waste management experts from the United Kingdom with a plastic degradable technology that could help solve the county’s plastic waste management problems.
Last Friday, the Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association led the plastic waste management experts from the United Kingdom to the Castle, Osu, to introduce the technology to the Vice President, John Dramani Mahama.
Ebo E. Botwe, president of the association, informed the Vice President that the producers had been equally worried about the menace and had been finding short and long term solutions to it.
The producers, he said, successfully found the technology in the UK talking to experts in South Africa and Israel , adding that the technology had been found to be working well in a number of countries.
John James, Export Manager from Wells Plastics Limited in the UK , explaining the technology, said it involved the use of chemicals that degrade plastic after its life cycle.
The chemical, he said, could be applied to plastic waste or added to it during production which could destroy it after its lifecycle.
The chemical, he said, degrades the waste plastic much faster in heat, adding that it was suitable for the climatic condition in the country.
"We think this technology can help a great deal," he said, indicating that the chemical which is environmentally friendly could degrade plastic fully between three to six months.
The Vice President commended the association for the effort in getting a solution to the plastic waste management problem and asked that the technology be started on a pilot basis for government to assess its efficacy.
"If it does work, government would not hesitate to pass legislation to its use in the production of plastics," he said.
The Vice President, speaking at national forum on sanitation in Accra last Tuesday, warned that government would consider banning the production and use of plastic bags if the producers did not find a viable solution to effectively manage plastic waste.