In February Dr Ralf Hardenberg, EndPlasticSoup Ambassador of Rotary Club of Nürnberg-Connect, Germany, visited Ghana. He was excited to volunteer for a medical project at a hospital in Nkawkaw, Ghana, and saw plastic everywhere.
Thousands of black disposable plastic bags, small plastic water sachets, plastic bottles – even littering the hospital grounds. Plastic never goes away. It just gets smaller. Microplastics pose a threat to human health, biodiversity, and the climate. Through the EndPlasticSoup initiative, clubs are working together to address and prevent the full-cycle problem of plastic pollution.
Plastic has been a problem in Ghana since the 1980s. Plastics have begun to dominate not only the landscape, but also villages and towns. They clog sewers and cause flooding before being washed into rivers, lakes and the sea.
When Ralf learned about the problems this waste was causing in nature, he proposed to start a cleanup competition. EndPlasticSoup supported this idea. Holy Family Hospital is a former mission hospital that includes St. Michaels Church and convent. Everyone wanted to take part, including the Reverend, maintenance staff, the sisters, and nuns from the convent. They bought T-shirts with the EndPlasticSoup logo. Everyone looked great in the T-shirts and red gloves.
Then off they went, into the bushes and everywhere. The biggest success was in the nuns’ garden. In total, 15.9 kilograms of pure plastic was collected, not including bottles. The collected plastic was carefully weighed and documented. After about an hour of collecting waste, the hospital grounds were clean.
The winners of the cleanup competition were awarded certificates and other prizes. The plastic was carefully packed up, and a company was contacted to purchase the material for recycling. At the big farewell party before Ralf left Ghana, they promised to carry out regular cleanup events – next time including the hospital’s immediate surroundings as well. The movement aims to influence the city of Nkawkaw as a whole.
A next step is that Ralf Hardenberg (Ambassador Nürnberg Connect) together with our alliance Technology without Borders plans to make this town the first plastic free community in Ghana!
Nkawkaw is a town in southern Ghana and is the capital of Kwahu West Municipal, an area in the Eastern Region of south Ghana. Nkawkaw has settlement population of 62,000 people in 2013.
see also: https://blog.rotary.org/2024/02/07/rotary-doctor-clears-plastic-from-ghanaian-hospital-grounds/
