Fan Milk Co-finances Major Recycling Project in Ghana  

 

Managing Director of Fan Milk (Mr. Stephane Cousté), Spokeperson of Chief of Tema, Executive Director of Environment360, Cordie Aziz

Accra, November 23, 2017//-Fan Milk, a leading dairy products producer has launched “Pick it” in Ghana, an inclusive recycling project which aims to contribute to increased plastics collection rates and to improve waste pickers livelihoods.

It is an innovative alternative to improve solid waste management in Ghana that would generate relevant economic, social and environmental impacts.

The role of Fan Milk is to ensure co-financing, to provide leadership to the project team and to coordinate the roles of all implementing partners during the pilot phase which will last for 2.5 years.

A sorting center, managed by the waste pickers’ cooperative, will be constructed and commissioned in May 2018 in Tema New Town.

It is expected that by end 2019 the sorting center will be collecting and recovering at least 25 tons of plastics per month, which is equivalent to 30% of the total volume of packaging generated by Fan Milk Ghana. By the end of year 2022, Fan Milk Limited will become “waste positive”, by supporting two more cooperatives to collect, segregate and recycle plastic waste.

The project is co-created and implemented by Fan Milk Limited, in partnership with Environment360, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing – WIEGO and the MIT D-lab.

In addition to the implementation partners, the project also has the full support of the Tema Traditional Council (and His Majesty Nii Adjei Kraku II, Tema Mantse) as well as from the Solid Waste Department of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), and the Environmental Protection Agency. The project is funded by Danone Ecosystem Fund, Fan Milk Limited, and FMO (the Dutch Development Bank). The Hewlett Foundation is also supporting the project, through WIEGO.

‘Pick it’ will enable the development of sustainable practices along the entire value chain (from generation to recycling). Waste pickers will gain management, technical and organizational skills that will increase waste recovery rates, secure earnings and increase their income.

This will be enhanced by the creation of membership-based waste pickers’ organizations (cooperatives), where recyclables will be sorted and then sold to recycling plants. Downstream, recyclables will be collected door-to-door in households and also in markets, industries and lorry stations.

A public awareness campaign will educate and stimulate citizens to reduce and segregate waste at source. A total of 300 waste pickers will be supported during the first phase to register with the National Health Insurance Service and also be trained in organizational, technical and management skills: 150 have already been registered whilst registration of the rest will be completed in 2019.

Stephane Couste, Managing Director of Fan Milk Limited Ghana declared: “Pick it will generate substantial economic, social and environmental impacts.

Fan Milk is proud, in line with the Danone ambition of “One Planet. One Health”, to develop a circular economy by creating a second life for the materials collected in the future.

The Pick it project aims to develop a model that can scale up in Ghana and across Africa. With Fan Milk as a core partner, it is built on similar initiatives supported by the Danone Ecosystem Fund in developing countries, including the successful Novo Ciclo Program in Brazil.”

African Eye Report

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