The Accra Waste Math

“In the midst of the catastrophic pollution of the environment by humans, we have chosen to take a stand for and with the environment against humans” – Gideon Marcel

If you are terrified by the sight of the disgusting pile of waste in the gutters, on the streets and inside every nook and cranny of Accra, then you probably don’t live in Ghana. The country has a severe environmental crisis and featuring prominently on that list is sanitation.

 When we talk about sanitation in Ghana, the argument is mostly political, social and cultural (attitudinal), but to really grasp the seriousness of the mess, you have to do a simple math to create a powerful story. The Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) is building a generation wide movement of young people to solve the environmental crisis in Ghana, and we have done a little math to tell the scale of the sanitation problem and offer a sustainable solution once and for all.

Our simple math has 3 numbers:

1. 2,500 tons

This is the amount of waste that is generated in Accra per day. Out of this number, 2,200 tons is collected and dumped at landfills, the remaining 300 tons find their way into open drains, streets, etc. Multiplying the amount of waste land filled by 365 days gives the total amount of waste Accra produces per year as 803,000 tons.

2. 10 Megawatts (MW)

Officials of the Accra Compost & Recycling Plant (ACRP), has indicated to the government that it is possible to use appropriate technology to produce 10MW of electricity out of 1,000 tons of waste per day. This amount of energy can power several thousands of households. To put this figure into perspective, two (2) waste-to-energy plants or a single one with combined capacity, with appropriate technology can swallow up all the waste Accra city produces in a day and still lack enough waste to power the plants. Simply put, we would run out of waste in the city.

Sweden runs the most effective and efficient waste management system in the world. The garbage generates 20% of the country’s district heating and provides electricity to 250,000 homes. “The only problem with the Sweden Waste Management system is that it is too successful”.  The waste Sweden produces is just not enough that they import 800,000 tons of waste from their neighbors Norway to keep the plants running. The amount they import is nearly equivalent to the amount of waste Accra produces in a whole year.

3. US$ 150m

Waste-energy experts in Ghana indicate that this is roughly the amount of money that can fund the operation of a waste-energy plant with appropriate technology to produce 10MW- 12MW per hour using between 1,000-1,500 tons of municipal solid waste per day. These figures are not perfect but are highly reliable.

So why hasn’t it been done? The excuse the government and municipal waste management officials say is that there is no budget and funds for this. We at Ghana Youth Environmental Movement are saying that we can find that money through a Price for Pollution. (Read about our Price for Pollution solutions here-http://gideoncommey.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-is-price-for-pollution-why-you.html).

We just need the political will to do that.  Yes, we can raise that money over here in Ghana. The solution is a Price for Pollution and it holds the keys to a green renewable future.

Every rapid transformation change requires a movement to drive it, our movement has just arrived and there’s only one thing on our mind – environmental power shift in Ghana.

Gideon Marcel (Campaigns Team, Ghana Youth Environmental Movement).

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A landfill site in Accra

What is Price for Pollution? Why You Must Support the Campaign

"Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those already doing it" 

For the past few weeks, we (Ghana Youth Environmental Movement) have been making noise about campaigning for a Price for Pollution in Ghana in 2013. We have been dead serious about it and very clear in details. As our theme for this year- ‘Our Year of Environmental Power Shift’ suggests, we believe that a price for pollution is the most ambitious and strategic campaign we can ever embark on in this country at this present time to shift power towards our future.

This article serves to explain in very simple terms, what a price for pollution campaign means, why the future of young people in Ghana depends on it and why every person reading this piece and all young people in this country must support it.

So what is a price for pollution?

What we are saying is that industries must pay for polluting the environment. A price could be in the form of tax prescribed by a government’s authority. We are making this a big moral issue. The argument is that if it is morally wrong to pollute the environment and/or wreck this planet, then it’s equally immoral to benefit from that pollution and wreckage without paying for it.

We know the groups that pollute - individual citizens, companies, industries, institutions, etc. We all pollute in this country and as such may feel guilty and defensive. However, as much as  it is very fair to say that everyone pollute in this country, it is equally fair to also say that not everyone who pollute benefit from that pollution and use their riches and power to block progress towards clean and renewable energy. So our campaign is naming the villains – plastics, mining and oil companies - to avoid any misinterpretation of the basic principles that birthed it.

In addition, we believe that activating this topic of paying for pollution automatically activates the broader perspective of the issue at hand - liquid waste from industries, hospitals and faeces been dumped into the sea without treatment, illegal mining (galamsey), the massive air pollution by the burning of e-waste and the importation of these e-waste to flood this country. These are other aspects that the campaign would touch, but we can only start from where we have the strategic capacity to make our voice heard.

Why do we want a price for pollution in Ghana?

1.Plastics, mining and oil companies currently do not pay for pollution and that is unethical.

They may compensate communities for destroying their habitats as part of their Social Corporate Responsibility, which might not even reach the real beneficiaries. Our argument is that this money should be centralized by an authority for such community rehabilitation and the progress of such projects be tracked to ensure maximum transparency and sustainability. Every oil pipeline is bound to spill and so it is only fair that even before oil companies drill a single barrel of oil, they pay a price on that barrel. We might not understand all the economic issues involved and that is why we are making this a moral issue and not an economic one.

2.It will provide more green jobs and create excitement around plastic waste collection

Every time a country decides to go green, that decision results in the creation of more jobs. There are 1,000s and millions of green jobs that exist in only recycling. In Columbia, plastics are being used to make chandeliers and in our own Ghana empty water bottles to build a couch. The fact is that government knows going green is good but their excuse to cover up the lack of political will has been the fact that there is no budget for that. And so we are saying that charge a price for pollution and use that money to set up the recycle plants in communities.

CHF International with partnership from the government ended its 3 years Youth Engagement in Service delivery (YES) project in 2012, which saw the construction of 4 'Buy back' centers for the gathering and buying of pure water sachets to recycling companies for recycling. (http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/12/20/chf-international-ends-three-year-ghana-youth-project/)

 The plants are situated in Avenor, Nima, Ga Mashie and Alajo. The project costs thousands of US dollars and currently provides employment for young people in those areas. What we are saying is that we don’t have to wait for CHF in order to create jobs and ensure good sanitation in our own country, let us do it ourselves!

3. In the short term, it would encourage investment in renewable energy and provide competition for fossil fuel corporations. In the long term it will divest fossil fuel companies and save our planet.

Renewable energy from sources like solar and wind tend to be expensive and as such they need subsidies to make them affordable to consumers. Our position is that the government should price pollution from these fossil fuel companies and us that to provide these subsidies and not taxes from ordinary Ghanaians. This will make it attractive for investment.

 Africa's largest solar power plant of 155MW is to be constructed in Ghana in 2015 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/04/africa-largest-solar-power-plant-ghana) by a British company called Blue Energy through a feed-in tariff that would be borne by our taxes. This is reported to increase our energy mix from renewable from 1% to 10%.

4. It will inspire fossil fuel companies and other industries to shift towards green energy and be careful about pollution.

Industries know what to do prevent or minimize pollution but they won’t do it. A price will make them think twice. Plastic manufacturers would make sure they have recycling plants constructed before they start production. Technology transfer has now ensured that fossil fuel companies can do what we call carbon capture and storage to cut their emissions. Once we strip their social license, they would be responsible!

5. It will decentralize waste management in Ghana as a community responsibility and initiative. This will empower households and communities to manage their waste effectively and improve upon sanitation.

One reason why waste management has become a failure in this country is that we have privatized it wrongly. Communities must be empowered with the capacity and logistics to handle their own waste. A price for pollution when executed strategically with transparency and accountability could reasonably build a recycling plant per community per year. This is not a dream, it is a possibility, and it can work. Communities would take care of their own space and it will provide more jobs.

Government should rather engage private waste management companies in very ambitious waste-energy technology. Sweden runs a wildly successful waste-to-energy program, generating 20 percent of the nation’s district heating and generating electricity for a quarter-million homes. But Swedes just aren’t producing enough garbage for the program and have found a unique solution: importing trash from neighboring Norway.  

Norway pays Sweden to take its trash, Sweden gets the heat and electricity, and Sweden exports the burned debris back to Norway. Swedes aren’t producing enough garbage for their successful waste-to-energy program. (http://edition.myjoyonline.com/pages/science/201212/99153.php).

If Ghana decides to run an ambitious waste-to-energy program, within only 12months, all the waste we have in this country won’t be enough to sustain our plants and we would end up importing more waste to generate more power. This is reality, this is happening. If the government doesn’t have money to run such systems, what we are putting on the table is that a price for pollution can raise revenue to start something now.

How do we get there?

We will campaign and campaign till our voice is heard, till we are listened to. One of the alternatives that we are putting on the table is that there should be an authority to calculate, demand, enforce and run this price for pollution. There is a Ministry of Communication in addition to a National Communication Authority, why can’t we have such thinking for the environment.

We believe that “perpetual optimism is a force multiplier” and above all the impossible is the un-attempted. "Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those already doing it" .

 

 

 

By: Gideon Commey (Campaign Strategist, GYEM)