TEMA TO IMPLEMENT PILOT PLASTIC PROJECT (PAGE 18, SEPT 24, 2010)

ENVIRONMENTALISTS from Ghana and the United States have met in Tema to brainstorm and seek ways to protect and restore ocean and coastal waters from waste.
As part of the meeting ,Tema has been proposed to have a demonstration project to reduce the amount of plastic waste and other trash entering the Gulf of Guinea through research and education to protect natural marine resources and keep the beaches clean.
The proposed project will consider an incentive package for residents to make it self sustaining and also increase the capacity of organisations in Ghana to recycle plastics.
Environmentalists and representatives of various organisations involved in the protection of the marine ecosystem and human health in the Gulf of Guinea who made the recommendation at a one-day workshop called for community involvement in the project.
Participants were drawn from research institutions in the United States and Ghana, Waste Management departments of Assemblies, fishermen, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Fisheries Commission, NGOs and plastic recycling companies .
The workshop, on the theme "Protecting the marine Ecosystem and Human Health in the Gulf of Guinea from uncontrolled disposal of plastics and other Metropolitan wastes," is to serve as a back up for a six-month research programme after which foreign and local resource funding will be sought to start the project.
With support from the United Nations University, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the USA, Africa Navy Partnership Station, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US State Department, the project will focus on the Metropolis of Tema where marine activities have attracted marine waste because of the ports .
The Foreign Affairs Specialist at the National Oceanic & Fisheries Atmospheric Administration, Keith E. Chanon, in outlining plans to be adopted, said the project would incorporate some components including the analysis of the amount and constituents of solid waste entering the ocean from the city of Tema and its projected fate and transport.
He noted that outreach and education to inform the public about the value of marine resources, impact of trash on these resources and human health and the benefits of segregating wastes and recycling, would form part of the project component.
Mr Chanon said the experts would introduce a plastic waste thermal processor to increase and expand the recycling capacity of the Metropolis.
He noted that the project component would document the lifecycle of solid waste to be able to establish the quantities and constituents of waste entering the ocean.
Mr Chanon stated that a technology device that was used to compact and process plastics would be provided to assist in recycling plastic waste from ships landing in the port of Tema as well as to increase domestic recycling.
Professor Chris Gordon of the Environment and Sanitation Institute who facilitated the workshop said marine debris has been a problem along shorelines and in coastal waters, estuaries and oceans throughout the world.
He observed that more people moved near the nation's coasts each year so there was the need to control the disposal of trash and waste.
Participants gave varied suggestions through which waste disposal into the sea and along the beaches could be stopped.
They called for clean-up exercises and a reduction of waste generated and a check against the indiscriminate dumping of debris into watercourses and coastlines.