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The Head of Ghana’s delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has proposed a five-point action plan to the ECOWAS Parliament for consideration to tackle the threats posed by plastic wastes to the environment, food security and cultural heritage.
He said the bloc’s Parliament must first push for harmonised legislation across member states to phase out single-use plastics within the next three years, as well as make heavy investment in innovative waste management solutions that turned the challenge into opportunity.
He further urged member states to strengthen enforcement against illegal fishing practices by foreign trawlers on the grounds that declining fish stocks faced threats from multiple fronts that must be addressed.
“Let us push for the establishment of an ECOWAS Coastal Protection Fund to support communities most affected by plastic pollution and declining fish stocks since we cannot leave our most vulnerable behind,” he said.
In an address read on his behalf at the opening ceremony of the de-localised meeting of three joint committees of the ECOWAS Parliament in Winneba yesterday, Mr Afenyo-Markin also proposed that: “We need a comprehensive public education campaign to change behaviours and attitudes towards plastic use and waste management.
“This is not just a government problem as it requires the support of every West African,” he said this at the start of the four-day event, which is being held on the theme: “Plastic waste management: challenges and prospects in the implementation of community activity”.
The meeting, the fourth of its kind to be held in Winneba, has brought together legislators from the committees on Agriculture, Environment, Natural Resources, Energy and Mines, and Infrastructure.
The event, which will end on August 3, 2024, will be used to inform the participants about the strategies and mechanisms developed for an environmentally sound management of plastic waste within the bloc.
Buttressing his five-point action plan, Mr Afenyo-Markin, who is also the Majority Leader in Ghana’s Parliament, shared with his colleague MPs some of the success stories in plastic waste management in Africa, citing how Rwanda had shown the way that it was possible to manage plastic waste.
“Rwanda taught us that it is possible. We must learn from their success and adapt it to our context. With about 80 per cent of our plastic waste currently mismanaged, we need rigorous and enforceable policies that span our entire region,” he said.
He also emphasised the need for member states to learn from pioneering initiatives such as Safisana and Recuplast, two private entities in Ghana and Senegal, that had successfully turned plastic waste into opportunities.
He said Safisana’s operation in Ghana had developed a groundbreaking approach to waste management, with the model combining faecal matter and organic waste treatment with the production of renewable energy, nutrients and water.
“This innovative system not only addresses our waste problem but also produces biogas for energy and organic fertiliser for agriculture, creating a truly circular economy.
“Safisana's scope could be expanded to include the transformation of plastic waste into energy through a process called gasification. In this process, plastic waste reacts with agents such as steam, oxygen or air at high temperatures between 500°C and 1,300°C.
“This produces synthesis gas, which can be used to generate electricity through fuel cells. The beauty of gasification is its flexibility,” he said. Equally impressive, he said, was the achievement of Recuplast, an initiative that collected up to 150 tonnes of plastic waste monthly, providing livelihoods for over 5,000 people.
The initiative, Mr Afenyo-Markin said, had created a network that recovered plastic from individuals for a fee or provided them with recycled products such as basins, tables or chairs.
“Imagine, colleagues, if we could replicate and scale up such models across our region, we could simultaneously tackle our waste management issues, provide renewable energy to our communities, support our agricultural sector with organic fertilisers, and create thousands of new, sustainable jobs in the process.
“This is the kind of innovative thinking we need. I am talking about bold solutions that are locally embedded but have a global impact.
“By adopting and scaling such approaches, we can create long-term positive effects on public health, mitigate carbon emissions and enhance food security in our region,” he stressed.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Hadja Memounatou Ibrahima, also urged Parliaments to encourage member states to invest massively in research and development, and to encourage technological innovation in recycling and recovery of plastic wastes.
She also emphasised the need for the capacities of local players to be strengthened in the responsible management of plastic wastes. “Above all, we need to adapt our school curricula to include compulsory subjects on the fight against climate change,” she said.
The Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, in a speech read on his behalf, said limited infrastructure for waste management, poor public awareness on sustainable waste management practices and weak policy implementation were some of the challenges that needed to be overcome to effectively combat the menace.
“In spite of all these difficulties, we have the opportunity to collaborate and champion the adoption of common regional standards for the effective management of plastic,” he said.
