Ghana overrun by plastic waste – Environmentalist

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Okyere Boateng, an environmentalist speaking on Radio1’s environmental program ‘Our Land Our Future’ with Michael Agyapong Agyapa made a revelation on how Ghana has been polluted with plastic waste. 

According to him, plastic waste is a visible problem in Ghana and waste management remains a significant challenge, with blocked drainage systems leading to flooding, thus making it a public health issue.

“The gutters are choked with plastics wastes, the environment is dirty and our water bodies is been polluted water and sometimes too when it rains the choked gutters lead to floods”, he said.

He added that The lack of a proper waste management system means that recycling is not an option, resulting in plastic waste being left to accumulate in open dumpsites around communities, rivers, and oceans.

“In many places, communities try to solve this problem by burning the waste. However, this can cause more problems as burning plastic releases toxic gases into the atmosphere causing air pollution,” he stressed.

“The most common single-use plastics seen everywhere in Ghana are those used for meals and drinking water, which are simply discarded into the environment,” he noted.

He then charge the government to provide waste bins and then advised individuals to be good citizens the only way we can fight plastic waste.

“Also, there’s a need to intensify public education because if we don’t it will soon be out of hands,” he concluded.

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African nations, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or nonexistent. But the developed world, especially in countries with low recycling rates, also has trouble properly collecting discarded plastics.

The United Nations Environment Program in a report in May 2023 (which examines the economic and business models needed to address the impact of plastic economy) proposed a system change to address the cause of plastic pollution, combining reducing problematic and unnecessary plastic use within market transformation towards circularity in plastics.

‘Our Land Our Future’ is an environmental program on Radio1 every Tuesday at 1pm.

The topic of discussion was about plastic waste and the core message was how plastic are becoming the emerging global environmental issues of concern. plastics used are now ending up in our oceans; distorting coral reefs and aquatic habitats. The whole month of July is earmarked as Plastic Free July. Plastic Free July provides resources and ideas to help millions of people around the world reduce single-use plastic waste every day at home, work, school, and even at your local place of worship.

By: Radiooneghana.com/Abena Ampofo