Mr Jib Hagan, an environmentalist has called on government to enact laws prohibiting the indiscriminate littering of plastic waste to avoid environmental pollution.
Mr Hagan, who is the Development Director of Collect and Recycle Ecologically (CARE),a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), made the call at Cape Coast over the weekend.
He was opening a two days Workshop on plastic waste Recycle for the Ecological (ECO) Club of Wesley Girls High School (SHS) in Cape Coast.
He said the enactment of the laws to punish people who litter plastic waste on the streets, would help streamline plastic waste management.
Mr Hagan said plastic waste had chocked most of the gutters in the cities, streams, rivers and the beaches, adding that, a law should be instituted to control the situation.
Mr Hagan said the environmental pollution created by the plastic waste is gradually affecting the country’s tourism sector, which serves as another potential force for the economy.
He said the CARE has formed over 250 ECO clubs in Junior and Senior High Schools nationwide to help keep environmental cleanliness.
He said the workshop was to assist the students to learn how to turn plastic waste into useful products to earn them some income.
According to him the plastic waste could cut into pieces and into ropes for the manufacturing of hats, baskets, flower pots and others.
The Director appealed to the government to invest more in skill development training to reduce the unemployment problem facing the country.
He suggested that Vocational and Technical training should be made available to children at a very early age to develop their interest in such areas even after JHS and SHS.
Mr Hagan appealed to government and other development partners to assist the NGO to reach more schools for such programmes on the sensitization on plastic waste management.
Mr Ebenezer Kpelly, a tutor at Wesley Girls Senior High School and a Patron of ECO Club said apart from managing plastic waste on campus, the club also educates the surrounding communities on the dangers of plastic waste, as well as undertaking tree planting exercises on campus and in the communities.