Coordinator for Eco-Conscious Citizens, Awula Serwah, has renewed calls for Ghana to ban single-use plastics, arguing that the country’s waste management challenges and recurring flooding cannot be addressed without decisive political action.
Her comments come after the June 29 rains triggered widespread flooding across Accra and surrounding communities, exposing persistent sanitation and waste management problems.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Monday, July 6, Awula Serwah said Ghana’s waste management system lacks the infrastructure needed to properly handle the growing volume of waste generated in urban areas.
She noted that Eco-Conscious Citizens and other environmental advocacy groups have consistently called for a ban on single-use plastics, which she said make up a significant portion of waste clogging drains across the capital.
“Eco-Conscious Citizens and others have asked for the ban on single-use plastics. If you look at our gutters, you look at a lot of the waste, about 80% is single-use plastics. We don’t need them, we can do without them. We need the political will to ban single-use plastic.”
She stressed that beyond improving waste collection, Ghana must prioritise recycling and reducing the amount of waste sent to already overstretched landfill sites.
“So yes, we need to do something about our waste management system, but we also need to do basic things like segregating our rubbish and making sure that, for example, our plastics are recycled and put to other use rather than taking them to landfill which are getting full.”
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