The Chairman of the Church of Pentecost (COP), Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye, has reiterated the need for government to reconsider ways to discourage the single use of plastics in the country.
He said plastic waste management is a huge challenge and the government needed to find innovative solutions to it.
The Chairman was speaking to journalists during the COP National Environmental Care Campaign clean up exercise in Accra on Saturday March 16, 2024.
He added that plastic waste management is an employment opportunity and a source of income so many people should be encouraged to explore and invest in plastic waste collection and recycling.
“Let’s see if some business entrepreneurs will come onboard and take charge of the plastics so that others will collect them at a fee and by so doing they will be helping in the recycling process and at the same time keeping the streets and environment clean,” he suggested.
Explaining the rationale behind the campaign, he said “It is not good for people to make and live in filth so we do this to bring some education for Ghanaians and church members to keep a clean environment”.
He observed that the campaign is gaining traction as the filt collected is much less than the previous years suggesting that people are changing the their behaviour and desisting from dumping refuse in drains.
“I think the campaign is helping because those days we used to collect much more rubbish than we have seen today,” he remarked.
Advising the general public, Apostle Nyamekye stressed that cleanliness is next to godliness and when people refuse to keep a clean environment, it becomes a challenge to all as the filth will breed mosquitoes, sickness and sometimes premature deaths.
“We are praying that what we are doing will be a lesson to a lot more people so that we don’t litter around in order that we can live a healthier life,” he emphasized.
The National Environmental Care Campaign, which stated in 2019, has gathered momentum that other African nations have joined the movement.
This year, Madagascar, Senegal and some West African nations where COP is present embarked on a similar clean up exercise today taking cue from Ghana.
“The filth here is the same everywhere so the COP is doing this globally and this year Madagascar, Senegal and other African countries where we are present also embarked on a similar exercise,” he stated.
He commended Zoomlion for the support over the years in helping the church to achieve such remarkable results.
The Communications and Corporate Affairs Director of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Madam Emma Adwoa Appiaa Osei-Duah, explained that Zoomlion as a strategic partner to the campaign, supported the exercise with logistics and machinery such as hand gloves, boots, wheelbarrows waste collection trucks etc.
She called on the general public to practice source separation where organic waste is separated from inorganic waste at home before transferring to waste collection points.
She mentioned that Zoomlion has also brought onboard Namaco, a material recovery company, that will buy the segregated waste especially the plastic waste and urged Ghanaians to take advantge of the opportunity.
In your home make sure you separate the papers, plastics and bottles from the organic waste and engage Namaco and they will come for it,” she noted.
The annual Environmental Care Campaign of the Church of Pentecost is a day set aside for members of the Church to clean the environment.