Kwame Ekpe displaying a copy of the litterbags to journalists
DRIVERS of public vehicles will soon have
litterbags affixed to their car seats as a means of controlling the waste in
the country.
Management of Gorsel SNT Co. Ltd has rolled out
an initiative dubbed, ‘Clean Car, Clean
City (4C)’ – a project aimed at reducing wastes to their barest minimum in
public vehicles, including Metro Mass and State Transport Corporation (STC).
At a press conference on Wednesday, Kwame Ekpe, Director of Gorsel STN, outlined strategies the
company had put in place to ensure effective implementation of the project.
These include the introduction of litterbags
which would be fixed to the back of car seats; the establishment of ‘Xchange
Points’ with ‘Precobins’ at the various bus terminals to be manned by ‘Litter
Marshalls’, a group of trained and appropriately equipped attendants; and the
deployment of “Kwik-movers”, a removal team on call to ensure that the “precobins”
at the various “Xchange Points” do not get overfilled and possibly spill over.
Mr Ekpe said following the pilot phase of the
project in some STC vehicles, the feedback was positive with a significant
number of drivers and passengers asking when it would officially take-off.
He added that user agencies such as the Ghana
Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), the Progressive Transport Owners’
Association (PROTOA), among others, had been co-operative except a few
individual members of these agencies who had slowed down their pace.
Besides, he said that he had written to and
engaged the Minister of Sanitation & Water Resources, and the Minister of
Transportation who had given their endorsements to the programme but are yet to
make any concrete contribution to it.
The litterbags are made of non-woven
polypropylene fabrics of various sizes. They are eco-friendly and have a number
of qualities which include non-toxicity, high tensile strength and
photodegradable.
Besides, they are non-water permeable, anti-bacterial,
non-allergic and washable.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio & Rhodaline N.A. King
