KMA Tackles Plastic Waste Menace

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), has launched a scheme to tackle the plastic waste menace and improve the city�s sanitation situation. One hundred and fifty people backed by two trucks, 200 collection sacks and 150 picking sticks have been mobilized for this. It has been code-named �Oranji,� and the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Kojo Bonsu, says, it has a twin-goal of helping to check littering and provide direct employment for people. Speaking at its official launch on Monday, he said those recruited have been put in gangs and assigned to the various lorry terminals and vantage points to pick litter. Each member of the gang would be assigned the collection of a particular kind of waste but the focus would be on plastic waste. Mr Bonsu said whatever was gathered would be sold to plastic recycling companies as raw material. He was upbeat that the scheme would complement other existing ones put in place, to make the city clean. He admitted that solid waste collection and disposal was a huge challenge to the city authorities. �Securing and maintaining final disposal facilities have become almost impossible for our cities,� he noted, adding that there was therefore the need to find new ways of doing things. The MCE announced plans to expand the capacity and life span of the Assembly�s landfill site at Dompoase with the construction of two additional cells under the Ghana Urban Management pilot project. Again further provision has been made under the Urban Development Grant (UDG) to procure more communal containers to check the heaping of refuse at dumping sites. The full cost recovery which was based on incremental cost recovery and declining subsidy, started in 2008, had matured into full -scale implementation since the beginning of the year. He also reported of progress made under the night sweeping scheme, saying, this has significantly improved sanitation in and around the Central Business District.