Seven female waste pickers have graduated after a six weeks training course organized by Environmental 360, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) at the Circular Innovation Hub in Accra, with support funding from the Australian Direct Aid Program (DAP).
The Hub was established with the primary purpose of engaging and empowering female waste pickers from the traditional way of collecting waste into an enhanced and innovative method of recycling the waste to a finished product for a commercial use.
Consequently, it is geared towards adding value to the works of waste pickers in the local chain to a more refined venture of recycled plastics by using advanced technology challenging the hub engage in partnership with other interested parties.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Founder and Executive Director of Environmental 360, Mrs Cordie Aziz-Nash, said the training programme unearthed the potentials of the graduands in the recycling space to enable them become entrepreneurs and financially independent.
According to her, the waste pickers engage in anything plastics such as bowls, cups, bottles, plates, comb among others and are recycle into other products for household and commercial use.
“Environmental 360 in these regard will roll out a ten months in-service training for the graduands to acquire skills and work with state of the art facility”, she said and assured that upon successful completion applicants will have the chance to own their machines to embark on their entrepreneurship trade with financial support from Environmental 360 and pay back through flexible terms of instalments.
Mrs.Cordie Aziz-Nash said the training programme is laudable and the first of its kind to build the capacity of entrepreneurs hence stakeholders must explore other avenues to open up for other interested parties to invest in the recycling sector through partnerships.
That she said would lead to job creation when value is added to plastic waste both at the rural and the urban centers of the country as a measure to reduce unemployment.
In an interview shortly after the graduation Madam Salomey Ketedzi, Cynthia Akoo and Vida Akoto respectively expressed their profound gratitude to Environmental 360 and the Australian government for their support in empowering the graduands to acquire skills and contribute their quota to the socio-economic development of the country.
According to them, the project would make them successful entrepreneurs and be financially self-sufficientsaying that collecting waste is a lucrative venture.
They commended fellow female collectors from Kumasi for their foresight in turning waste into the construction of bamboo bikes and create also grips for handle bars from recycled plastic which in earnest will be on the Ghanaian market after approval from the relevant institutions.
By Ben Laryea, African Eye Report
