A man among plastic waste. Source: The Sun, UK – Image: 2024
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | February 26, 2024 (IDN) — Environmentalists are worried. Plastics, tons of them, are produced every year, but 70 percent of them end up in landfills or are burned.
Several studies have predicted that by the middle of the 21st century, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans.
In Ghana, some of the effects of ocean pollution are already visible as fishermen catch more plastic than fish.
“For several years now, whenever we cast our nets, all we catch are plastics,” said Kwame Nkum, a Ghanaian who says he knows the problem firsthand. “Sometimes, after a whole haul, you’ll only catch a dozen fish, and the rest are trash.”
Of Ghana’s total plastic waste, an estimated 86 percent is disposed of improperly, resulting in plastics clogging storm drains, rivers, and streams and ending up in oceans.
With a massive plastic waste problem, Ghana has an overall Ocean Health Index score of 65 out of 100, which is said to be lower than the global average score of 69. The country is ranked 160 out of 220 regions on the index.
All this plastic waste poses a serious threat to Ghana’s fishing industry, which employs 200,000 fishermen, delivers 80 percent of the total local fish supply and provides livelihoods to over 2 million people, including thousands -thousand women in the market.
While several other African countries have adopted punitive legislative anti-plastic bans targeting the importation, production, and consumption of single use plastics, Ghana has been slow to tackle plastics.
New tools to increase the collection and recycling of plastic waste are being developed along the lines of carbon credits—collectively called “plastic credits”.
Using these tools, the World Bank announced a $100M waste reduction bond for plastic and carbon credits. This innovative bond provides investors with a financial return associated with Plastic Waste Collection Credits, Plastic Waste Recycling Credits (collectively, plastic credits), and Verified Carbon Units (carbon credits).
In addition to reducing plastic pollution, these bonds will address local pollution and air quality, reduce associated health impacts, and create jobs in often overlooked and marginalized communities.
Alexander Onica of Skandia, a Swedish financial services corporation, commented: “We are pleased to participate in the Plastic Waste Reduction-Linked Bond. This is a great example of how investment capital can both generate good returns for our customers and at the same time help solve some of today’s global challenges.
“The large amount of plastic polluting the world’s oceans is everyone’s responsibility,” said Onica.. “I am pleased that Skandia is participating and contributing to part of the solution.”
Elsewhere, Kenya and Rwanda continue to break plastic waste recycling records.
This week, a group of Kenyan women can be seen picking up plastic waste that will be used to build freezers. The waste is sold to Kuza Freezer, where employees break the plastics into pellets before molding them into cold storage units.
Rwanda has been implementing national bans to reduce the consumption and production of single use plastics since 2004. Rwanda was the first country in the African region to introduce a plastic ban law and is now recognized as one of the few country in the world that has responded to the issue of plastic pollution progressively. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image: A man in plastic waste. Source: The Sun, UK
IDN is the flagship agency of the non-profit International Press Syndicate.
