Don’t waste the waste - Recycling plants to fight poor sanitation

The waste materials which should serve as resource to produce useful products through recycling are now posing threats to our health and environments.

In our swiftly urbanising global society, waste management has been a key challenge facing cities around the globe and in Africa in general, including Ghana.

A study conducted by the Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank has said Ghana spends more than GH¢1.4 billion annually to combat the effects of poor sanitation and open defecation.

David Morris, an author, once said: “The case for recycling is strong. The bottom line is clear. Recycling requires a trivial amount of our time. Recycling saves money and reduces pollution and creates more jobs than landfilling or incineration. And a largely ignored but very important consideration, recycling reduces our need to dump our garbage in someone else’s backyard.”

This reminds me of a recent unhappy development when pupils of the Ashaiman Presby A and B Basic Schools embarked on a demonstration to appeal to the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly to close down a major refuse dump which was very close to the school.

According to them, they had no choice than to go home earlier than the normal closing time due to the smoke and strong disgusting odour that emanated from the dumping site.

Apart from that, they said they had to put up with houseflies in their classrooms as a result of the proximity to the dumping site.

Furthermore, the contamination of water bodies leading to the spread of water borne diseases, health hazards from the stench emanating from uncollected and decaying garbage, air pollution, filth-choked drains, the plastic waste menace and the irresponsible disposal of refuse in communities are the imperatives to be checked and addressed through recycling.

Successes in scrap
As a country with a vision to curb sanitation problems within our societies, especially in our cities, we need to learn from our shortcomings and failures in our sanitation initiatives; and that should also offer some learning opportunities for us to be more strategic in solving sanitation problems by investing in permanent solutions such as recycling.

I have really observed some successful stories in scrap management than that of solid waste in the country.
In recent years, due to the fact that there are scrap-recycling companies who are in dire need of scrap, thousands of people have been employed in that business; supporting our environment to be free of the indiscriminate disposal of scrap.

According to Wiener (2011), in the United States alone, more than 450,000 people are employed directly or indirectly by the scrap industry and recycling provides social benefits related to minimising waste landfills, which reduces competition of urban lands for different uses and generates employment for collection and recycling activities.

Example in scrap management
In my own view, I think the same strategy can be applied to make Accra, the capital city, the cleanest as the President desires; by constructing more waste-recycling companies through the one-district, one-factory policy and public-private partnership (PPP).

It will result in waste materials serving as resources for production.

Though experts have attributed the causes of poor sanitation to wrong perception of solid waste, poverty and ignorance among citizens, the blame game among sector institutions, negative public attitude towards waste and loopholes in some laudable waste management strategies are also among the issues.

However, I believe that recycling plants are what we need to curb the situation.

That is because when more recycling plants are built, the citizens, who are the main agents of the waste, will help solve the problem, especially now that many people are unemployed. They will collect waste from different sources and sell to the companies and that will help make our environment very clean as the scrap dealers are doing for Ghana now.

E-waste growth
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, each year the electronics industry alone generates up to 41 million tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) from goods such as computers and smart phones, with forecasts saying that figure may reach 50 million tonnes globally starting from this year.

Last year, it was reported that a $30 million recycling plant was to be constructed at Agbogbloshie in Accra to address the e-waste materials generated in the country, and that is expected to be completed this year in June.

It is, therefore, incumbent on the government to work hand-in-hand with the private sector to ensure the waste is properly collected, sorted and processed by ensuring recycling plants are built for the benefit of the citizens.

By doing so and following it with mass sanitation education, we will arrest the poor sanitation problems, perennial health issues and at the same time provide jobs for the people, especially the youth, and enjoy conducive environments in Ghana.

Journalist and communication consultant
Eshunfac2009@yahoo.com.