Accra: The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has called for stronger collaboration among stakeholders to tackle Ghana's growing plastic pollution challenge. The Authority said plastic waste continued to threaten communities, drainage systems, waterways, and the coastal environment despite efforts through policies, regulations, and partnerships.
According to Ghana News Agency, Mr. Hussein Kassim, Head of Projects and Resource Mobilisation Unit of the EPA, made the call at a stakeholders' policy dialogue on plastic pollution in Accra. He emphasized that addressing this challenge requires a coordinated approach linking policy to effective implementation, sustainable financing, and collective action. Mr. Kassim noted that the dialogue, held as Ghana prepared to transition from Styrofoam products to biodegradable alternatives, provided an opportunity to examine gaps in existing interventions and consider practical measures that could deliver measurable results in the fight against plastic pollution.
"This is also the thinking behind the National Partnership for Clean Oceans," Mr. Kassim said, "an initiative being advanced to provide a platform for stronger coordination and collaboration amongst stakeholders working to protect Ghana's waterways, coastlines, and oceans." He explained that the initiative was not intended to replace existing interventions but to connect relevant agencies and stakeholders on a common platform.
Professor Nana Ama Klutse, Chief Executive Officer of the EPA, highlighted that plastic pollution and choked drains remained worrying issues, making environmental protection a collective responsibility. She stated that successful implementation of measures to address plastic pollution required a multisectoral approach involving government, development partners, civil society organisations, the private sector, households, communities, and markets.
Leonie Reese, Deputy Ambassador of the German Embassy, remarked that plastic pollution is a global challenge with local impacts seen in polluted communities, rivers, drainage systems, beaches, and oceans. She acknowledged Ghana's decision to ban the production, importation, sale, distribution, and use of Styrofoam products nationwide from January 1, 2027, as an important step in addressing single-use plastics. However, Ms. Reese stressed that policies alone would not resolve the problem, emphasizing the need for data, research, innovation, sustainable financing, producer responsibility, and behavioural change.
Hungary's Ambassador to Ghana, Tamas Feher, shared his country's experience with a nationwide deposit-return system for beverage packaging as a possible model for Ghana. He explained that Hungary introduced a mandatory system in 2024, requiring consumers to pay a deposit on eligible plastic, metal, and glass beverage containers, which was refunded when the empty containers were returned. By the end of 2025, more than five billion beverage containers were returned in Hungary, with the annual return rate approaching 90 per cent.
Ambassador Feher suggested that Ghana could adapt the model rather than simply copy it, particularly by integrating the country's large informal waste collection sector. Recognised collection partners could include waste collectors, while shops and community-based organisations could operate collection points. He concluded that such a system could reduce plastic leakage, increase recycling, create jobs, and stimulate investment in the circular economy, demonstrating that plastic waste could be transformed from an environmental burden into a valuable economic resource.