In December 2021, the Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) published a “Roadmap for radical reduction of plastic pollution in Ghana.” NPAP includes over 120 Ghanaian member organizations including the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation. The roadmap shows results from a national survey of plastic usage and waste in Ghana and then models predicted plastic use and leakage into the environment over the next 20 years. The report includes 11 case studies highlighting projects already underway in Ghana to substitute or redesign plastic products and to expand waste collection and recycling. NPAP highlights that approximately 18% of plastic waste currently generated in Ghana comes from food packaging or carrier bags for which many alternatives already exist but need to be more widely adopted. The final and largest section of the roadmap discusses how to “enable conditions and necessary actions by stakeholders.”
The NPAP roadmap outlines six impact areas that represent the key challenges in changing Ghana’s plastic use, policy, financing, behavior, innovation, metrics, and inclusivity. NPAP set up a task force of national and international partners “to identify problems, generate solutions and take action” for each of the six impact areas in order to “ensure recommendations are fully implemented.” Under the “realistic” model if many of these interventions are successful, plastic leakage into waterways would significantly reduce from current levels instead of increasing. Because of Ghana’s increasing population, NPAP predicts plastic leakage into the nation’s waterways will increase 320% if there is no further investment in addressing plastics and plastic waste, and they will increase 190% if the current rate of capacity building continues.
In 2019, Ghana was the first African country to join the Global Plastic Action Partnership where President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said, “Ghana, after this process, will make best efforts to be a model for other countries in the region and on the continent on issues related to plastic management.”
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Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership (November 2021). “A roadmap for radical reduction of plastic pollution in Ghana.” (pdf)
Global Plastic Action Partnership. “The Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP).”
