{"id":462446,"date":"2018-02-07T21:10:58","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T21:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2018\/02\/07\/ghanaian-introduces-pavement-blocks-made-from-plastic-waste-lasts-500yrs\/"},"modified":"2018-02-07T21:10:58","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T21:10:58","slug":"ghanaian-introduces-pavement-blocks-made-from-plastic-waste-lasts-500yrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/02\/07\/ghanaian-introduces-pavement-blocks-made-from-plastic-waste-lasts-500yrs\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaian introduces pavement blocks made from plastic waste; lasts 500yrs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">General News of Wednesday,  7 February 2018<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>3news.com <\/p>\n<p>2018-02-07<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/19121146.295.jpg\" alt=\"Plastic Pavement Block\" title=\"Plastic Pavement Block\" width=\"295\" height=\"183\" \/><span class=\"play-icon\">play video<\/span><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Nelson Boateng, a factory hand, produces a total of 200 blocks daily<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125817929577\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125817929577\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/1518037858_161_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\"> A Ghanaian has introduced into the country, an innovation in the construction industry that is set to help Ghana solve its plastic waste menace and create jobs for hundreds unemployed youth.<\/p>\n<p>In the last six months, Nelson Boateng, a factory hand, has been recycling plastic waste products, which are developed into pavement blocks.<\/p>\n<p>Using 80 per cent of broken plastic products and 20 per cent of sand, he is able to produce 12-inch square pavement blocks that have a lifespan of 500 years.<\/p>\n<p>With a current production capacity of 200 blocks per day, a total of 230 direct and indirect jobs have already been created by Nelson.<\/p>\n<p>He told TV3 these figures could increase with the availability of a hydraulic pressing machine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is ready market for the product, but because we are not doing this on a large scale, I don\u2019t want to put myself in a position where I will not be able to provide for their demands,\u201d he indicated.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond its durability, the pavement block made with this innovation makes the product cheaper and far better than the normal pavement blocks on the market.<\/p>\n<p>With Ghana struggling to properly manage plastic waste, the innovation being championed by Nelson is being lauded by industry players who say it is imperative for the government to capitalize on it to help reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GrIy1Hu622Y\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In West Africa, Ghana in particular, the issue of collection, management and disposal of plastic waste continues to be a burden for governments as one of the biggest sanitation problems.<\/p>\n<p>It is estimated that only two per cent of the about 22,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated annually in Ghana are recycled, with the remaining 98 per cent finding its way to landfill sites, drains, water bodies and other open places, including the streets.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of political has made it difficult for Ghana to make a definite decision as to whether to ban the use of plastics as a means of solving the country\u2019s sanitation problems.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has however, pledged government\u2019s support to enable Nelson expand the production to other parts of the country and employ more youth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going to provide him with that hydraulic machine so that he can scale up and I hope that we can replicate this project in all municipalities and districts,\u201d Professor Frimpong-Boateng said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 71 updated by: 71 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>General News of Wednesday, 7 February 2018 Source: 3news.com 2018-02-07 play videoNelson Boateng, a factory hand, produces a total of 200 blocks daily A Ghanaian has introduced into the country, an innovation in the construction industry that is set to help Ghana solve its plastic waste menace and create jobs for hundreds unemployed youth. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":462447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}