It is the “Phase II of the Plastic Waste Pilots in Ghana” under the umbrella project “Further Actions to Address Plastic Waste under the Basel Convention.”

The one-year programme to be implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) in col­laboration with BRS Convention, with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Co­operation (NORAD) and BRS Convention.

Speaking at a stakeholders workshop on the project in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate at MESTI, Ms Abena Afriyie Appiah, said the pilot project was a sequel to a similar project which was carried out between 2018 and 2023.

She said the first phase in­volved six pilot projects on fish-net recycling, beach clean-ups, citizen science surveys, water vending ma­chines, micro plastics, plastic-free schools, reusable bags, and edible and compostable packing.

The Deputy Director further explained that the second phase was to scale up the achievements in the first phase of the pilot proj­ect, and create a deeper and more sustainable impact.

She indicated that the phase II would cover pilot projects on plastic-free-schools, water vending machine and edible, and com­postable packaging taking into account lessons learned from the previous pilot project.

The Deputy Director of PPMED of MESTI said the second phase which would end in January 2025 was expected to reduce plastic waste pollution in the country.

According to her, those pilot projects were not only critical for promoting the environmentally sound management of plastic waste, but also contribute to achieving Sustainable Develop­ment Goal 14.1 which was focused on reducing marine pollution.

Moreover, Ms Appiah ex­plained that the plastic-free-schools was geared towards behavioural change, getting on board school children to understand why they should separate their plastics from the organic waste.

She said when plastics got into the environment, it took thousands of years for them to decompose, and it had harmful effects on the microorganisms within the envi­ronment.

She stated that the plastic-free-school was geared towards teaching school children how to separate at source, so that in their schools, they would know that we don’t put plastics among organic waste.

“After they have separated, we will encourage them to understand that these plastics have economic value. They are not just waste. So we move them to processing sites where the plastics will be recycled into tote bags, pencil cases, back­packs, raincoats. Instead of them seeing the plastics as waste, they’ll rather see that it’s of economic val­ue,” Ms Appiah stated.

On the water vending machine, the Deputy Director of PPMED of MESTI, noted that water vending machines would be placed at strategic places such as the Junc­tion Mall at Nungua for people to buy and drink instead of buying sachet water.

Ms Appiah on the edible com­posting packaging materials said under the pilot project, MESTI would promote the use of biode­gradable materials for food packag­ing in some restaurants in Accra.