Reduce, reuse, recycle for growth

Reducing the use of plastics in the domestic and professional lives of society seems a daunting task, likened to the difficulty a primary one student will face when asked to climb the great Afadjato.

Plastics find application in all of social endeavours, from kitchen bowls and cups to television sets, office tables to computers, car parts to road construction, roof-ceiling panels to doors and so on.

None has been left out of the wonderful aroma of plastic products.

They are flexible, readily available, easy to process, lightweight and affordable compared with metal and glass. It is for no reason that alcoholic and non-alcoholic bottling companies in Ghana have shifted from the conventional glass bottles to the use of plastic alternatives.

Hope

Societies are unable to wean themselves off the plastic use addiction. However, there is hope for the campaigners of plastic use reduction to save the earth. That can be generally achieved through the reuse of plastics for a secondary function.

The purchase of certain new plastic products can be substituted with another plastic item when it gets old, to perform similar functions.

For instance, the storing of water in newly processed plastic storage vessel is rare in most homes, where used barrels of some safe chemicals or paints or empty yellow gallons of cooking oils are used in performing the same functions, without having to purchase an ‘adom ara kwa’ new plastic water reservoir.

Similarly, used bottles of packaged drinking water for storing or retailing vegetable oils acts as a safe reuse mechanism. Reusing plastic products do not only prolong the life cycle of the waste, but yields economic gains in the sector. Individuals have made money from the sale and reuse of plastic products that have exhausted their primary purpose.

Recycling

Not all plastic wastes are reusable.

Therefore, in the absence of reusing an item, we may go for the complete conversion of the waste material into a new product. Conversion of plastic wastes into new products is described as recycling.

Companies buy the used plastics and recycle them into other useful products. Recycling also creates jobs, while keeping the environment clean. Examples of recycling activities include the conversion of broken plastic chairs into plastic tables and crates for storing glass bottles of some locally produced drinks.

Similarly, the sachet water plastic wastes are converted into polyethylene bags, buckets and dustbins during recycling.

Adequate systems must be put in place to keep used plastics off the streets, gutters, streams and the sea.

Individuals, retailers, organisations and other groups pick the waste plastics from the streets, homes, offices, churches and shops for onward transfer to recycling companies.

We must all join efforts at reducing dependence on plastic products, while we cash in on the reuse or recycling of it, for national growth.

E-mail: boniface.antwi@gmail.com