Solving Waste Menace; 1 District, 1 Waste Processing Plant

It surprises me why none of the political parties is presenting solution to one major problem which is shooting this country to hell in their campaign tour thus, waste management. Well, they cannot be blamed because citizens of this country in recent CDD survey never mentioned waste menace as one of the most concern areas to the Ghanaian masses. The facts are still clear, waste menace is negatively affecting the growth of this country, destroying lives, river bodies, properties and unnecessarily draining the government coffers.

On the flip side, it is one major single project which can create employment, enhance economic growth, support agriculture and above all, restore the aesthetic value and beauty of this country which has been swallowed up by our indiscriminate dumping of waste in our environment.

While some countries are gaining economic values and benefits from waste management, we are rather spending huge amount of money in collecting and dumping waste which at the end of the day become no use to man. Have you ever wondered why countries who currently face no challenge with respective to waste management especially solid waste, have improved educational structures and hospital facilities; quality transport services and lower employment rates? Solving waste menace directly and indirectly have a positive impact on other sectors of the economy.

Making reference to the key composition of waste generated in this country, managing waste should never be a problem for us as a country. Most research works list organic waste, plastics, papers, metals and glasses as the major constituents of our waste stream. Organic waste can be composted into inorganic substances which are readily available for plant uptake to support our agriculture and horticulture businesses. Plastics are currently the most used form of resources for industrial and home purposes. Gradually, most items which previously relied on trees and metals are being replaced with plastics. Plastics generated as waste can be recycled into useful product to support the developmental growth of this country. Today, it is not uncommon to see many people picking used water sachet to be resold to recycling agents. Recovering of metals and glass in waste stream has been with us for many years by metal scrappers. If all these exist, why the problem of waste in this country?

First, waste generation is the cheapest component in this country. You can purchase an item worth 500.00 GH cedis and after use, you can easily throw that item away without a cost. This does not make sense. People should be made responsible for any item they throw into our waste stream. There ought to be waste management cost attached to every waste generated by any person or institution which should be equivalent to the nature of the waste and its management cost.

Secondly, we have a system where everybody can just walk all the way to waste collection site to dump waste. It is impossible for waste to be managed if citizens are allowed to walk all the way to the waste site to dump their waste. People need to be trained professionally and licensed to perform such acts. They should be assigned with an additional responsibility of reporting inappropriate dumping of waste in the environment. Waste should be professionally handled and valued. The negative effects of indiscriminate dumping of waste call for it to be dealt professionally by professionals.

Thirdly, wastes are not separated at source. This may not pose as a threat if the first and second point are put into practice. Introducing separation of waste at source would have been the best option but this should be gradually introduced into our system. Currently, the best practices would be collection of waste by the trained and licensed waste collector to a collection point where it would be transported to the District Waste Processing Plant, where separation of waste into organic, plastic, metals, glasses, and other items would take place.

Those under organic would be grinded into powdered forms and processed through composting for agriculture and horticulture purposes, which would be sold to farmers. Registered factories and industries which undergo recycling of plastics, metals and glasses would purchase their plastic materials from the Waste Processing Plant instead of individuals. Waste materials which could not be recycled nor be reused would be sent to a well-engineered landfill.

To illustrate, I would use data from Asante Akim North District as an example.

The District would have its Waste Processing Plant which main purpose is to separate, process and manage waste in the District. It would have a separation chamber, where all waste from collection points would be sent to be separated into organic, plastics, papers, metals and nonmetallic, glass, and landfilled classified waste. The organic sector would grind all the organic component to undergo composting processing which after maturation, would be packaged and sold to local farmers. Through government interventions, the district waste plant would liaise with registered recycling companies which would purchase the separated plastics, papers, metals and other recyclable materials. All the non-recyclable materials would be sent to well-engineered landfill attached to the Waste Plant. Attached to the Waste Processing Plant would be Liquid waste department which would treat household liquid waste, a research and legal department to liaise with various institutions to provide best practices and methods of recovering useful resources from waste as well as ensuring prosecution of perpetrators who indiscriminately dump waste or fail to pay cost of waste collection.

Per the Population Census 2010, it was estimated that the district has a total of 15,480 households with an average household member of 4.5. These household members in a day can generate a minimum amount of waste worth 1.00 GH cedis, thus an estimate of 15, 480 GH cedis per day and an average income of 464,400 GH cedis from household waste collection per month. This excludes waste from institutions, stores, shops and the market places. With an average of 5, 000 identified institutions, shops, stores, market points, with waste collection cost of 1.00 GH cedis per day, it is estimated that an additional amount of 150,000 GH cedis per month would be income generated from waste collection from these identified institutions. This does not factor income generation from organic compost from organic waste to local farmers to boost agriculture yields and recyclable materials sold to recycling companies. In addition, the government would introduce a tax on every product introduced into the environment that has a potential of ending in our waste stream except farm produce, with a label attached to create awareness of the need to protect the environment on these products. This would be effective especially when there is a law to prosecute products without the waste management tax label. A percentage of the accumulated tax to the central government would be shared to the various Waste Treatment Plant across the country to support their operational cost. Again, percentage of fines charge on perpetrators for indiscriminate dumping or flouts laws associated with waste management would be channeled into the operation of the Waste Plant. A registered financial service or institution would be attached to the plant to manage the financial management and provide high level of technology to enhance effective mobilization of funds and utilization of resources for smooth operation of the plant.

The essence of providing sustainable solution to waste menace in this country is very vital and it should start now. Some of the useful outcome from this policy would include;

1. Provision of sustainable jobs to reduce the high unemployment rate in this country. With an estimation of one person to 30 households and institutions, the Waste plant would employ an average of 683 people in the District for waste collection using tricycles, which is more than the total health personnel and civil servants in the District. On average, 147,528 people would be employed nationwide.
2. This system will solve over 90 percent of our waste problems with respect to municipal solid waste at district level, therefore reducing all the negative impacts associated with poor waste management.
3. As part of operation of the Waste Plant, it would ensure an establishment of beautification and landscaping Department to embark on aesthetic value and district beautification exercises. This would be tasked to engage in recovery and restoration of land destroyed as a result of land exploitation and illegal activities.
4. The Central government would be able to save huge amount of money pumped into waste management and sanitation exercises.
5. More job opportunities and innovation would be created as waste are turned into resources and individuals and companies would prefer to do business with the Waste Plant.
6. Again, as part of policy to deal with waste issues in this country, the government would ensure that every company that produce products into the environment which would end up in our waste stream employ an environmental or waste manager to ensure sustainable methods and environmental sustainable plans for their products. This would also create numerous employment for the people of this country.
7. House numbering system and local participation would be enhanced since waste is a product which is generated by every individual. Each waste collector would be task to organize stakeholder meeting for the people within his/her jurisdiction to ensure sustainable means of managing waste. This would therefore enhance local participation not only in waste collection but in other decentralized systems.
8. This project has a higher sustainable level since waste as a raw material is always available with us.

Management waste has a potential of transforming this country and therefore calls on politicians and other stakeholders to delve into sustainable ways and ideas to help provide a lasting solution to waste. This policy is achievable and doable and this country has every capability and potential to implement and improve this system to make this country a serene and better place worth living.

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