The figures put out by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) last Friday should jolt every Ghanaian into action.
Speaking at a policy dialogue on plastic pollution in Accra, the Chief Executive Officer of the EPA, Prof. Nana Ama Browne Klutse, revealed that Ghana produces about 1.1 million tonnes of plastic waste annually (See Page 16).
Out of this staggering volume, barely 10 per cent is recycled.
The remaining 90 per cent ends up choking our gutters, littering our streets, polluting our beaches and killing marine life in our oceans.
It is a damning statistic.
It is also a visible reality.
Plastics are useful.
They are part of modern life.
They preserve food, carry goods, and support businesses and households.
No one disputes their economic value.
What is unsustainable is how we produce, consume and dispose of them.
Every rainy season, we see the consequences.
Drains blocked by plastic sachets and bottles cause flooding in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi.
The floods destroy homes, claim lives, and breed cholera.
Our once-pristine beaches from Laboma to Busua are littered with plastic debris.
Fishermen at Elmina and James Town pull more plastic than fish from their nets.
Microplastics are entering our food chain.
And yet, we generate 1.1 million tonnes a year and recycle only a tenth.
This is where policy coherence matters.
Ghana has no shortage of policies on paper.
We have the National Plastics Management Policy.
The ban on single-use plastics has been discussed for years; we have guidelines on extended producer responsibility, and various by-laws by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
What we lack is bold, decisive, and sustained implementation backed by collective responsibility.
The EPA alone cannot handle plastic waste. It must be a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.
First, we must enforce Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in full.
Those who produce and import plastics — the beverage companies, the sachet water producers, the supermarkets, the importers of plastic packaging — must be made legally and financially responsible for collecting and recycling what they put on the market.
It cannot be voluntary charity.
It must be mandatory, with clear targets and penalties.
The EPR scheme being rolled out by the EPA must not be allowed to become another beautiful policy on the shelf.
Second, we must formalise and support the informal waste sector.
The real heroes of plastic collection are the waste pickers, the "Borla" collectors, and the aggregators who work under the scorching sun for little pay.
They recover plastics where the formal system fails.
Government must integrate them into the waste value chain, provide them with safety equipment, fair pricing, and access to recycling plants.
When we invest in recycling infrastructure, we are creating green jobs.
Third, we need aggressive investment in recycling and alternatives.
Ten per cent recycling is an indictment.
With 1.1 million tonnes generated annually, we have enough raw material to build a thriving circular economy — turning waste into pavement blocks, building materials, textiles and fuel.
However, this requires deliberate incentives: tax breaks for recycling companies, dedicated plastic collection bins in every community, and buy-back centres in all districts.
The private sector must be crowded in, not crowded out.
Fourth, we must change behaviour at source.
The call for collective responsibility is critical.
Every Ghanaian who throws a sachet out of a trotro, every shop that gives a plastic bag for a single item, every household that mixes plastics with organic waste is part of the problem.
Segregation of waste at source must start in our basic schools and homes.
We must make it socially unacceptable to litter.
Finally, we need metropolitan discipline.
MMDAs must enforce their by-laws on littering and indiscriminate dumping.
It makes no sense for the EPA to be holding policy dialogues while assemblies look on as drains are choked with plastics right in front of their offices.
Environmental diplomacy shows that Ghana's plastic problem is part of a global crisis, and we can learn from Germany's successful deposit-refund and circular economy models.
But international support will only work if we show domestic will.
We cannot talk about tourism, blue economy, and clean oceans while our gutters and lagoons remain plastic museums.
The challenge is thrown.
It is now up to the government, industry, MMDAs, and citizens to respond.1.1 million tonnes is not just a statistic.
It is 1.1 million tonnes of our collective failure — and 1.1 million tonnes of opportunity if we decide to act.
The time for bold, decisive and sustained action is now.
