Top firms in Ghana’s oil and gas sector are uniting to fight plastic pollution, one of the largest global environmental hazards of today.
Downstream and upstream industry players like Tullow Oil, MODEC, Eni and Rigworld Solutions among others joined hands to clean beaches in Accra and help rid them of plastic as part of a larger campaign to ensure the country is aware of the threat that plastics pose to its survival and concrete steps are taken to tackle them head-on.
Green Diversity Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation that has been campaigning on the dangers of single-use plastics since its formation in 2017, is the organisation facilitating the activities of companies involved in this advocacy.
To mark World Environment Day 2023, the organisations came together to organise a clean-up at La Beach, one of the largest and most popular beaches in Ghana’s capital.
“We know that in unity lies strength, and in the unity of these major companies we hope to mobilise the needed resources and tackle the plastic menace head-on. The problem is that if we do not do anything about the rate at which plastics are increasing in volume, we will suffer the bigger cost soon,” said Hobson Agyapong, Founder of Green Diversity Foundation.
This year’s World Environment Day is being marked around the theme ‘Solutions to plastic pollution’, with a reminder that people’s actions on plastic pollution matter. The theme seeks to also remind all stakeholders of the important steps governments and businesses can take in tackling plastic pollution.
“It is time to accelerate this action and transition to a circular economy. It is time to work on beating plastic pollution,” said Sandra Kyereh, Chief Executive Officer at Green Diversity.
For over two hours, the companies mobilised their staff and business associates – numbering over 500 – and cleaned up a more than 200-metre stretch of beach area; gathering a heavy volume of rubber, used plastic bottles and other waste material that otherwise would be swept into the ocean.
“What we have done here is only the tip of the ice-berg. It is a small part of what we all need to do. This planet is all that we have, and it in our own interest we stop plastics from destroying where we live; and that’s why we are putting ourselves together to do this,” said Antonio Pasquale, HSEQ Manager for Eni, speaking on behalf of some of the organisations involved in the project.
In Ghana, plastic litters large swathes of the five hundred kilometre coastline and impacts marine spaces. Estimates for Ghana’s contribution to global marine debris range from approximately 92,000 to 260,000 metric tonnes every year – or one to three percent of the global total.
