ENVIRONMENT360 & NBU TRIAINING FOR WASTE PICKERS IN KUMASI
On the 22nd – 24th of May, 2019, at the No Business as Usual Hub (NBU Hub) in the city of Kumasi, Environment360 in partnership with No Business as Usual Hub organised a 3-Day training for waste pickers in the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly (AMMA) with regards to reducing plastic waste in Kumasi. The training brought together CSO’s within the municipality who helped organize the pickers to identify key challenges to building an eco-system that supports the growth of a circular economy, enlighten participants and to help determine how best this project can be done
This 3-Day workshop was to give an overview of the Northern Rhine Westphalia project in Kumasi, share experiences from beneficiaries of the project as well as highlight the projects expected and current impact. This training is set to be the first approach in mobilizin more waste collectors in the municipality to help reduce the amount of littering in the municipality and in Kumasi as a whole.
The program commenced with the NBU Project Coordinator, Mrs Esther Matey, who gave the opening and introductory remarks and followed up by NBU, Mr. Samuel Aboagye, who trained the participants on Core life skills
The training continued with the Kumasi recycling Coordinator of Environment360, Mr. Samuel A. Boateng, who spoke on the project background which was an overview of the Northern Rhine Westphalia partnership regarding the reduction of plastic litter in Kumasi and the theory that helped develop the project as well as a view of global initiatives that are similar to the action taken. He stated the Northern Rhine Westphalia partnership with Environment 360 in the year 2019 which provided leadership and capacity building to strengthen the organisation of the Oforikrom Dagomba Line Scrap Dealers Association (ODLSDA) and also to pilot a take back scheme for plastic bottles (PET). He also added that the was the need to create an eco-system where informal sectors are recognized and accepted as independent waste workers, to foster dialogue and cooperation among key players to increase the amount of recyclable post-consumer waste collected and also to support the creation of a circular economy to create a stronger economy and better jobs. She then concluded that the inclusive integrated waste management systems can be cost effective, also there’s a potential solution to increase collection rates in urban areas not serviced by private industry and also a cost-effective way to implement source segregation and the reduction of waste going to the landfills.
Group Session: Answering Questions and prototyping
About 30 participants worked in pre-assigned groups to discuss potential collection models and partnerships that may be feasible for increasing plastic waste in their Municipality. Questions ranged from Quality controlled, Conflict resolution, criteria for group selection and process efficiency. The group then made prototypes of the suggestions to all the challenges identified.
Key points from discussions were gathered and in his concluding remarks, as lessons learned, Mr. Samuel A. Boateng, mentioned that the Asokore Mampong project shows promise to help reduce the amount of plastic litter in its municipality and Kumasi as a whole. He also said to increase collection; there will need to be more involvement from various informal sector groups and also innovative partnerships with waste management sector and private industry can also lead to an increased collection.
Mr. Daniel Okity-Boamah and Mr. Samuel Aboagye gave the closing remarks for the training and certificates of participants awarded them.
