The New Juaben South Municipality has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO), a major waste recovery and recycling project that is expected to create sustainable employment opportunities for young people and women.
The initiative, which focuses on waste recovery, recycling and environmental protection is expected to generate jobs across the waste management value chain, including waste collection, segregation, transportation, aggregation and recycling activities.
Under the arrangement, GAYO will link the municipality to recycling industries that will purchase recyclable waste materials collected within the area, creating business and employment opportunities for residents.
The project forms part of broader efforts to improve sanitation, reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill sites and promote climate-friendly waste management practices in the municipality.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Zero Waste Director of GAYO, Mr. Jacob Johnson Adabrah, said the initiative goes beyond environmental protection and seeks to create green and sustainable jobs for vulnerable groups, especially young people and women.
“The point of the Zero Waste Project is not just to work on waste as an environmental and climate imperative, but also to create green, sustainable jobs for young people and women working within the sector,” he stated.
According to him, experiences from similar projects implemented in Ghana, Uganda and Botswana indicate that the waste management sector has enormous employment potential.
“In our estimation from the work we have done in several municipalities, for every five tonnes of waste about eight jobs are created because you need people to collect, sort, process and transport the waste,” he explained.
Mr. Adabrah further encouraged individuals and entrepreneurs to establish buy-back centres where recyclable materials could be collected from residents and sold to larger recycling companies.
“You can set up a buy-back centre if you have land, ask people to trade in their waste, aggregate the materials and sell them to bigger recycling companies,” he noted.
The project will involve the segregation and sorting of waste materials to separate reusable and recyclable items, instead of dumping all waste together.
Some recovered waste products are also expected to be processed into materials for concrete and other construction-related purposes.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for New Juaben South, Ransford Owusu Boakye, said the Assembly was optimistic that the initiative would help reduce the pressure on landfill sites and lower the huge costs associated with waste disposal.
He revealed that the Assembly spends between GH¢80,000 and GH¢200,000 almost every week to clear overflowing landfill sites in the municipality.
“Our landfill site is always full and almost every week we spend huge sums of money to clear the place. With this project, we are confident the burden on the Assembly will reduce significantly,” he said.
Mr Boakye explained that the project would introduce proper waste segregation systems where plastics, liquid waste and other materials would be separated at source to improve recycling and waste recovery processes.
“We are going to have a situation where all waste will no longer be mixed together. There will be separate sacks and containers for different types of waste,” he added.
The New Juaben South Municipal Assembly described the partnership as a strategic step towards building a sustainable waste management system capable of improving sanitation, reducing operational costs, and promoting environmentally responsible practices within the municipality.
The Assembly believes the project will not only create cleaner communities, but also open up new economic opportunities for residents through the growing waste recycling industry.
For more news, join The Chronicle Newspaper channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBSs55E50UqNPvSOm2z
