General News of Sunday, 13 May 2012Source: citifmonline.com Renowned Economist, Kwame Pianim is advocating for a “zero tolerance to plastic waste” in the country.

According to him, “the plastic waste menace, if unchecked, has the potential to destroy a lot of our hard-earned progress as a country”.

He lamented the fact that the effects “in the increased flooding caused by plastic waste chocking our sewage systems” adding that “each year, people die in these floods and scarce budget resourced have to be used to tackle a problem that should have been prevented in the first place.

Mr. Kwame Pianim was speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Yale Global Day of Service organized in Accra to among others things, ensure Ghana embraces the task of combating the spread of plastic waste in its communities by initiating a program that will distribute branded Yale Day of Service plastic waste collection bins in strategic places around the capital.

He said until the Ghanaian society resorts to paper bags, the challenge will continue. “If you must use plastic”, he pointed out, “when you finish, collect it into a separate bin and take it to recycling factories where it would be put other uses or disposed off in an environmentally friendly manner”.**