The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with Zoomlion and Jekora Ventures, has extended its waste segregation programme to first and second cycle schools in the Osu-Klottey Sub-Metro in Accra.
The programme brought together heads of selected Primary and Junior High Schools within the sub-Metro and stakeholders in the sector to create awareness about the programme.
The programme, launched in 2003, is to encourage separation of waste at source, promote clean environments and reduce diseases on the citizenry.
Under the programme, three waste bins labelled paper, plastic, food are given to each institution within the ministries and the selected tertiary and senior high schools in Accra.
The first and second cycle schools are to make arrangements for the emptying of their bins per institutions within the sub-Metro with monthly monitoring by Jekora Ventures and Zoomlion for recycling.
Mr Dodson Cudjoe Voado, the Chief Project Officer at Build Equipment, EPA, said implementation of the programme had started with institutions in the Ministries where 60 identified participating institutions have been given the sets of 240-litre and 30 litre capacity waste bins.
Mr Voado said source waste segregation was an efficient and environmentally sustainable way of managing waste and it would also help reduce the amount of waste in the basic schools.
He said successful implementation of the programme would increase public awareness, increase volumes of waste diverted through reuse and recycling and recovery of materials from waste would increase.
Mr Voado said it was estimated that waste generation per day in most urban centres in the country was about 2,800 to 3,200 metric tonnes, out of that about 60 to 70 per cent was collected and disposed of at approved dump sites and landfill sites while the rest of the waste end up in unapproved location causing environmental issues.
He called for effective ways of managing the huge volumes of solid waste to avert any health implications in the country.
Mr Samuel Nortey Quaye, the Project Officer in charge of Education, EPA, said improper waste had negative impacts on the environment such as ground water contamination, aesthetic and odour nuisance and on public health.
He called for collaborative efforts and attitudinal change to address environmental challenges confronting the country.
Ms Akua Akyaa Nkrumah, the Innovation Manager at Jekora Ventures, said their outfit had reached 24, 000 households in the collection and recycling of the waste generated under the programme.
The heads of the beneficiary schools commended organisers for the initiative and affirmed their resolute support to create the needed awareness in their respective schools to reduce and manage waste.
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