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31.10.2014 Feature Article

“Proper Disposal Of Papers And Plastics”, An Urgent Course To Be Studied

Proper Disposal Of Papers And Plastics, An Urgent Course To Be Studied
31.10.2014 LISTEN

Having specialized in culture and tourism, that service sector called travel and tourism has been known to correlate strongly with serene environment, clean streets and gardens. When our streets and for that matter drainages are free of plastics and papers, the beaches for instance will minimally receive transported bunch of filths during rainy hours; Thereby fetching our country that serene beach at Mexico's Acapulco Bay, that spotless beach at South Africa's Cape Town and the likes.

Proper treatment of papers and plastics must therefore be of touristic concern to all tourism stakeholders, as such this proposal. This article seeks to propose means of creating awareness on proper disposal of papers and plastics with the help of two main identifiable groups in the society; the mini-bus conductors popularly known as the “trotro-mates”, and the Ghana Education Authorities.

First Group:
Very key section of the society which can be harnessed to help drive clean streets are the bus conductors popularly known as “trotro mates”. We want out streets in the first place to be freed of multi-colored papers and plastics. Drivers, mates and passengers more especially the uneducated category contributes immensely to street littering by throwing containers (water sachets, papers, cans and others) through vehicles' windows. They see this more appropriate than to use the window to drain the container out of liquid and keep the emptied container. On a typical working day, a passenger is totally considered weird or angelic upon condemning a fellow passenger who just passed a parcel through a vehicle's window.

It might sound very time wasting to drain unwanted liquid out of its container and rather keep the container (water sachets, papers, cans, bottles and other plastics). But this is a practice worth thousands of dollars inculcating in order to save billions of dollars lost through correcting environmental problems; such as dredging, de-silting of gutters, evacuating flooded victims among others.

The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and major stakeholders must provide education directly to commercial drivers and mates from stations to station. Educating this identifiable group right at the field, that is from station to station will reduce bureaucracies of using transport unions and authorities; which have the tendency to turn a pure fieldwork into conferencing and presentations, even to the educated few in the transport industry and consequently yielding least or no results. Drivers and mates at stations must be trained on the importance of tidy streets to all including their transport industry. They must be educated on how strategic they drivers and mates are positioned to help realized litter-free streets and roads.

Factually, sizeable dustbins are confined at vintage points like stations, centers and homes where they are more manageable by collecting and disposing off properly; So drivers and more especially mates must be taught on how to create awareness against indiscriminate street littering. Just as a big “yes” in a trotro by default tells each passenger it is time to cash-down/pay fares; NCCE and EPA can educate trotro mates to make it their habit of pronouncing or stating something anti-littering right before the vehicle sets-off the journey. It could for example be as simple as “please use any of the windows only to drain all containers of their liquids and keep the container in the vehicle”. Training mates and drivers to practically and habitually making pronouncements like this in all rounds, not in English but in the area's dominant dialect will go a long way to ensure that containers (sachets, cans, bottles, plastics, papers, etc) are confined mostly in vehicles to be offload at lorry stations and homes instead of streets and gutters.

Vehicle operators would be much concerned about keeping liquid containers in the vehicle since liquid spillages can increase the rate of vehicular rusting. So the education must much centered on how passengers can use windows only to drain liquids (irrespective of the car moving or stopping) and keep empty containers back in the car; Only for them to be disposed off at lorry stations and homes. Should this be considered and materialized, papers and plastics will then be in clusters awaiting proper collection and treatments only at gathering places like lorry parks. For private car users and elite communities, a real and well constructed advertisement (devoid of any animations and cartoons as usual) must be aired through the varied media to target them.

Not only will these customary pronouncements help spread the environmental gospel, but will also constantly remind citizens the need to dispose off containers properly. Humanly, almost every passenger will pose “citizen vigilante” to make sure containers are put back in the vehicle, upon hearing the mate's pronouncement.

Second Group:
If it is tested and proven, if we side with the late Nelson Mandela; that education is the best tool to in solving most social setbacks; why are we delaying the enrolling of the core subject “Papers and Plastics Treatment (PPT)” on our educational curricular? Street littering must be given much educational attention by wiring a paper-and-plastic-treatment core subject right from the lower primary to the high schools. Currently one needs to specialize in environmental studies at the tertiary level before paper and plastic treatments could pop up.

Another unsatisfactorily point is, the current Environmental Studies at the basic school level is more of generics, not detailing and specifying avenues such as dealing with papers and plastics after usage. Meanwhile plastics in particular are the current major environmental canker in all cities across Ghana. On a normal a day, a Ghanaian school children by mindset will justifiably throw away plastic or paper immediately after usage, long even before reaching school or house where disposals are comparably controlled through the use of dustbins. A chunk of Ghanaian pupil had no idea of emptying sachets thoroughly and keeping it till reaching the nearest dustbin. And such children are not being consciously guilty, for it is currently illogical among children to keep unused papers and plastics till the nearest dustbin (house or at schools).

School Authorities, Ghana Education Service (GES), Sector Ministry, Environmental Protection Agency, Government of Ghana (GoG) and other stakeholders as a matter of problem solving should partner to either; Beef up the Environmental Studies subject with this “Proper Disposal of Papers and Plastics”, or replace it entirely. The proposed core subject must this time be more practical and detailing more of;

• How to treat unwanted papers and plastics
• Where to place unwanted containers (sachets, plastics, papers, cans, bottles, etc)

• How to treat unwanted cans and bottles right after using the content

• How and where to empty the remaining water in a sachet, and keep the sachet for the dustbin

Some catchy statements can be highlighted to be of daily recitals at the basic education just like poems. Example of the blocky statements can be;

 Use the content; Keep the container for the dustbin

 Put all cans, put all papers, put all rubbers in the trotro or the vehicle

 Use the content, help recycle the plastic
 Tell a friend to tell a friend to properly dispose off papers and plastics

Nationwide, statements like those above must be of the same design and read from all vintage points and school premises just like the usual “Speak English” inscriptions in schools.

There is this “sections and houses” system in our junior and senior high schools, in which school compound is virtually demarcated into sections for proper cleaning and maintenance. It was adopted surely to inculcate the habit of cleanliness by first keeping the school compound serene. And no doubt in typical school day, the senior high schools especially through this cleaning system have more serene compounds on the average than even most church premises on service days, not to mention of other gathering centers like funeral grounds and sports stadia. This tells a vigorous education of the upcoming generation on proper disposals can help minimize if not eradicating street littering.

Abel Okyere
'a keen observer'
[email protected]

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