Plastic Bags

This is a serious problem looming in Ghana and Africa as a whole, I am not sure if the Authorities are aware of the negative impact that these bags have on the environment, if they are, they are certainly not tackling it with the urgency it requires, in a few years time, our lands will be become barren due to buried plastic bags, they can take up to 1000 years to decompose, as they decompose, they break into tiny pieces and leach toxic chemicals into soils, lakes, rivers, and oceans, the bags itself also poses a threat to inhabitants of the ocean, lakes and rivers, if ingested the animals can choke to death, (thanks wikipedia for the science bit. You didn’t think I was that clever did you?), at the moment the plastic bags are buried in every inch on the ground with bits sticking out, if you look at huge gaps left by erosion you can see how deep they are buried. What impact will it have on our health and well being, our economy our future? our children’s future?

We used leaves and paper to wrap food years ago, maybe we should revert to that as we are clearly not ready to follow the developed world in terms of plastic bag use, that is one of our issues we like to copy the Western world, but they have their infrastructures in place to tackle problem whiles we don’t, in the western world, plastic bags are recycled, individuals take responsibility of placing rubbish in the bins provided, household rubbish are divided into different bins for recycling purposes, even so it is still a problem for the developed world let alone us, until Ghanaians are educated to take personal responsibility for discarding rubbish in an appropriate manner, I strongly suggest we go back to using leaves and paper, at least they will decompose in the ground as that is where we insist on placing our rubbish.

It is so amazing to watch someone buy a sachet of water "pure water" is what they call it, (it is anything but pure, but that is another topic entirely) drink it and the next thing you hear is “chaw” pronounced “chao” that is noise the sachet makes when it is hits on the ground, (because they are seldom empty when they are dumped) yea just like that without a blinking an eye, these days there are a few bins scattered across the cities, even if they are standing next to a bin they will still throw it on the ground, so strange.

I was at a funeral in a village, it was a huge outside space with chairs placed in a semi circle with a dancing area in the middle, then all of a sudden I heard chaw, then another chaw, followed by more chaws (yea, yea , iiit iiis thee sounnnd the waater saachet makes when iiit hiits thee grounnd, we get it)I didn’t know what was going on, then it hit me, not the water sachet silly, I realized what was going on! somebody has given them "pure water", and as if on cue they were throwing the empty (well not completely empty otherwise they wont be making the “chaw”sound will they?) sachet in the dancing area, you get my drift? Come!...come closer..., I will let you in a little secret, sshh! I think they like the sound it makes when it hits the ground whiles there is still water in it, he hehee…) I was stunned, I sat there in disbelief, the thing is when something like this happens, you are on your own, because all the people around you do not see anything wrong, they think there is something wrong with you for thinking there is something wrong. Did you get that? read it again if you didn’t, to them it is normal, they look at you in a funny way if you react differently, so I just act normal, whiles inside I will be screaming hhmmggg!! DON'T DO THAT!

Littering is a huge problem in Ghana, we need a better trash collection infrastructure.

There is a company that is supposed to be cleaning the country but that is a joke, I saw road sweepers pushing their rubbish cart half asleep, not once did I see them stop to pick up rubbish, oh and believe me if I say there was a lot.

Kumasi was the worst, the rubbish that has been swept had been left in big heaps along the streets in city centre, unbelievable! the suburbs are buried under black plastic bags.

The black plastic bags are particularly an eye sore they are everywhere, it is horrible, our lovely beaches are littered with plastic bags, the whole country will soon be buried under plastic bags, if we are not careful.

Forget about Alien invasion, start worrying about the Plastic Bag Invasion (PBI) with its poison gradually seeping into our our soil, rivers , ocean, gradually getting into our food chain into our drinking water and into our bodies, ugh! I shudder to think what it will do to us in years to come.

In this day and age thanks to the Internet and television the whole world is just a click away, most Ghanaians have access to information, oh you will be surprised just how much information they have access to, they know about things happening in the world that you don’t even know about, even those who live it the remote parts, they are particularly interested in the Western world and like to copy the western way of doing things, so why cant we copy the one thing that in my opinion will no doubt have the biggest impact on our future which is how they dispose of their rubbish, and individually committing to making our country clean as our future and our children’s future depends on it?

Could it be that the politicians in their polished chauffeured cars travel to and from work via the posh part of the country and seldom visits these areas, therefore have no idea what is going on?, surely they see the black plastic bags? I don’t think there is any part of the country that has not been invaded by the plastic bags albeit the posh parts get swept daily.

This is our country and our future, we must as a nation do something about it and not rely on the government because we all know that they are more interested in being powerful than actually using that power to get things done.

I have surprised myself about how calmly I have written this, reading this, you wouldn't know this is the one thing I am most passionate about would you? you would think it is the Armed Robbers or the Midnight preachers, but you will be wrong, if I can do just one thing for my country it will be the proper disposal of plastic bags, because it is the one thing that has the potential to devastate our future but also very easy to rectify. Firstly, ban the damned thing, well not me personally, I don't have the power to do that, will have to persuade those who have the power, I am sensing this will be the hardest, reintroduce the use of paper or introduce paper bags, secondly educate the masses of the importance of disposing rubbish, especially plastic bags safely harder still but it can be done, thirdly, clear the whole country of it and recycle or find the best way to safely get rid of it, I know it is not as simple as that but it will be a start.

There is still more to come I have to give it to you in small doses because believe you me it it hard to swallow, come back again for the next dose. In the mean time please feel free to leave a comment.

If however you are reading this and you think you can help Ghana with our Plastic Bag Invasion problem please get in touch with me and lets get Operation Plastic Bag Invasion moving, thank you.