News:
June 5, 2018
Parliament has observed world environment day by calling for serious measures to deal with the plastic menace in Ghana that had been a challenge for years.
Chairman of the Committee on Environment, Science and Technology, Kyeremanten Agyarko in a statement on the floor of the House noted that 1.7 million tons of plastic is produced in Ghana each year.
According to the chairman, only two percent of the plastic waste is recycled leaving majority of the plastic waste on our environment causing a lot of disease and other environmental hazards.
He further called on authorities to regulate and check this plastic waste menace by regulating and control the use of plastic.
“Each year 8 million tons of plastic waste end up in the oceans, we buy one million plastic bottles every minute”.
And added that the flooding being experienced is largely attributed to the plastic waste we have in the country, “Mr. Speaker past efforts to deal with plastic menace has not achieve any results, we should find new and innovative ways in dealing with it”, he said.
Plastic must be considered as a resources rather than a pollutant and called for intensification of education to change attitude in the use of plastic and manufactures should be task to produce biodegradable plastics, he remarked.
Again the use of plastic to boost production of energy should be given a second look and urged all MPs to join in the advocacy for attitudinal change.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com