PROJECT-SUPPORT GHANA

Association Buy Food with Plastic, Zurich, Switzerland

Country / Place

Ghana, Elmina and Dwabor

Ghana is a country in West Africa, bordering Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and to the south the Gulf of Guinea, as part of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Ghana is the metropolis of Accra. The Volta Reservoir with the Akosombo Dam, completed in 1966, is the largest inland lake in the country and one of the largest artificial bodies of water in the world.

Elmina is located on Ghana's south coast near Cape Coast, the local hub of Ghana's Central Region. Dwabor is a remote village in the Central Region of Ghana.

General

Buy Food with Plastic is a global non-profit organisation founded in Zurich in 2018. Its commitment is to support communities in need in Nicaragua (Tola region), Ghana (Elmina region) and the slums of Mumbai (Bhandup) in India, where meaningful systems for recycling the massive plastic pollution are lacking and insufficient access to education and food insecurity prevail.

The vision is to build a self-sustaining circular economy that fights extreme poverty by providing access to nutritious meals and fair jobs. At the same time, plastic pollution is minimised by promoting environmental awareness and the use of recycled plastic in the plastic value chain. The collected plastic is processed locally into useful and aesthetically pleasing products, the sale of which should largely refinance the projects in the future.

Beneficiaries

Buy Food With Plastic Ghana was founded in 2021 on the initiative of the local country manager, George Kwame Quansah, who recognised the potential of the concept to make a sustainable contribution to development for the people in the region. The population can pay for hot meals with plastic bottles and other plastic waste at regular events.

In Elmina, the local population is mainly involved in fishing, agriculture, and tourism, with the historic slave fort of Elmina being an important tourist attraction. In Dwabor, people live mainly from cocoa and rubber cultivation. Local farmers and teachers volunteer for "Buy Food with Plastic" and the community shows a strong commitment to change. The most pressing local challenges in the region include massive plastic pollution, limited access to higher education, a high unemployment rate, and food insecurity.

Project-support

Project: Activities Elmina and Dwabor

At least every two months, the dedicated team organises events at which plastic bottles and Pure Water plastic bags are exchanged for nutritious meals. Discussions about environmental protection and conscious consumption also take place.

The company is also involved in the local community through radio programmes and school workshops to promote the responsible use of plastic. The ongoing activities on site create secure local jobs and raise awareness of the plastic problem.

In 2023, important milestones were reached in the expansion of the local plastic recycling infrastructure in order to tackle the pressing problem of plastic waste with local infrastructure. The association has set up a plastic collection centre in Elmina and has also started building the first-ever upcycling production facility in the region. Once the plant is fully equipped, it will produce a range of products that close the local plastic cycle and offer a sustainable solution to the problem of plastic pollution.