“Let’s take our sanitation seriously so we have a better life, bad sanitation can equally lead to loss of lives just as war “. These were the final words of Julius-Jayson Botchway, the Team Leader of Recycle Up! Ghana-Accra on Radio Univers 105.7 on the 7th of Feb, 2017. Recycle Up! Ghana is a subsidiary of a Ghanaian-German NGO called ‘Technology without borders.

During the last summer camp, members were taken through lots of experiences and this gave rise to the participants proposing traditional solutions they can bring up to solve our sanitation problems as far as plastic waste management is concerned. Four solutions were settled on however, three of these solutions have been implemented. These are: education by the Eduplasts, direct source segregation by the B-Park and Campus Dustbin Project. The final one yet to see the light of day is the Plastic To Fuel Project.

“B-Park is a solution targeted at helping young school children to appreciate the importance of recycling. It can also be called Recycle Up Your School” remarked Belinda Arthur, a member of the B-Park team. St.Andrews PRESEC Legion and the PRESEC Senior High School have been the pioneer recipients of this initiative. Bins have been provided so that they separate their plastic wastes from the others. Recycling companies are being contacted to help take these waste materials.

As it stands, research has shown that Ghana is the world’s 7th dirtiest country. And recycle companies channel so much money into separation of organic from inorganic wastes to enable effective recycling. This makes their output very low since most of the resources are being used to separate the wastes and little left for the recycling. It is therefore imperative to separate the wastes right from the source.

Julius-Jayson further went on to explain: “Plastics do not rot and remain there forever. Rain falling on wastes form leachates which sinks down to the ground water and finally pollutes the water. These polluted water find their way into animals that drink them and humans that drink untreated water and this causes a myriad of health problems.”

Hence, recycle up! Ghana is here to educate the public and also help mitigate the plastic menace of Ghana and the planet at large. It was even revealed that plastic is fuel when passed through the right processes. This can be used to generate employment and alternative source of fuel and save lives