The Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with McDavid Green Solutions (MDGS/MDPower LLC) of the US for the construction of plants to convert waste into energy across the country.

Under the MoU, the first waste-to-energy plant—to be sited in Dawa, a new industrial enclave in the Kpone Katamanso Municipality in the Greater Accra Region, will cost $70 million.

The Executive Chairman of JGC, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, initialled for his group, while the President of McDavid, Mr Mark Boswell, signed for his company at a ceremony in Accra last Saturday.

Sustainable waste management

Addressing journalists after signing the MoU, Dr Siaw Agyepong said waste-to-energy technology was a game-changer for sustainable waste management system in many advanced countries.

“Today, we want to take a bold step by adding this technology to our value chain to enhance our vision of becoming a fully integrated waste management company based on sustainable waste management principles with minimal impact on public health and the environment,” he said.

According to Dr Siaw Agyepong, the waste to plant technology when implemented successfully, would help the country to sustainably manage 100 per cent of the different waste streams generated, adding that many countries that were approaching zero waste had incorporated waste to energy technologies in their waste management system.

“We can talk of USA, Germany and Austria to mention but a few. Developing countries such as India, Malaysia and China have also introduced such technologies in their waste management systems,” he mentioned.

He further said that waste to energy technology was efficient, particularly for waste, “comprising high energy materials such as plastics, paper and wood, which currently form about 40 per cent of the waste stream.”

Strategic partnership, Dr Siaw Agyepong also said, was one of the pillars of JGC, emphasising that “ we are happy to add MacDavid Green Solutions (MDGS/MD Power from the United States of America to our family of partners, specifically in the area of waste-to-energy.”

He was confident that the partnership with the US company would lead to the “successful transfer of technology,” as done in the area of collection, transfer, recycling and composting.

Ghana will benefit

The President of MDGS/MD Power, Mark Boswell, who was accompanied by the Chief Operating Officer of the company, Jordan Boswell, said its partnership with Zoomlion would benefit the country as part of the broader Ghana-USA bilateral ties.

“Our countries working together is very important, since the US always seeks, through such initiatives, to help countries it has strong ties with to support their development and progress,” he added.

Mr Boswell said the company welcomed its partnership with JGC as the latter had distinguished itself in Ghana’s sanitation sector.

He commended Zoomlion for the work it had done so far in the sanitation sector, saying “we have visited Zoomlion sites and we are very impressed with the work the company has done so far and we, therefore, look forward to working with the Jospong Group”.

The energy-to-waste technology, Mr Boswell said, was a worldwide technology which he said was being practised in countries such as Russia and Vietnam.

The construction and completion of the plant takes between 12 and 16 months.

JGC invest in technology

The JGC described as ambitious its decision to invest in technology for the management of the various waste it handles.

Under the management of liquid waste, JGC is expanding and upgrading its liquid waste treatment plant and technologies to treat more liquid waste within Accra and its environs by its subsidiary — the Accra Sewerage Systems Ghana Ltd.

The expansion project being undertaken by EMO, an environmental technology company based in France, will help increase the capacity of the plant to treat 3,500 cubic metres of liquid waste per day instead of 2,000.

The Chief Executive Officer of EMO, Mr Phillippe Hardouin, who co-signed the agreement with JGC, indicated that the partnership would for the first time have French technology being used to treat liquid waste in Ghana.

JGC has also ordered five mobile garbage treatment plants from the Austrian company, Komptech, to be delivered by the end of this year.

The purchase of the plants is a further investment in technology for the efficient management of waste as they can sort and recycle reusable material while processing a large amount of organic waste into compost.

The order from Zoomlion Ghana represents the largest single order in the company's history from Komptech, amounting to €13 million, the financing secured with the help of export subsidies from the Austrian Kontrollbank.