Immediate Release, Accra, 20th March 2021:

The Green Africa Youth Organization Eco Club Campus Chapters (GECCC) is set to embark on a sensitization project to highlight solutions to the plastic mess in Ghana, using university campuses and students as agents of change to #BreakFreefromPlastics.

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as the rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. We can’t keep quiet and watch our environment destroy, it is time for collective action.

Green Africa Youth Organization through its Eco clubs campus chapters in Ghanaian universities, including the University of Ghana Legon,  Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University for Development Studies (UDS) Tamale campus, is poised to promote a Plastic  Free Campus Movement.  GAYO envisions having the biggest impact-based eco clubs to raise young ecopreneurs and climate leaders, increase the employability of youth by providing them with professional working experience during their time in the university. The GECCC utilizes university fora, virtual climate change talks and community engagements as key avenues to achieve its vision. 

GAYO Eco club campus chapters would want to applaud the government’s decision to introduce a sanitation and pollution levy to resource the waste management bodies to effectively execute their mandate of protecting the environment while promoting disaster risk reduction. We are however of the view that a stand-alone sanitation levy would be more efficient compared to sneaking it into petroleum taxes as this does not make it explicit on the urgent need for extended producer responsibility.

We are also joining the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) to demand a total ban against single-use plastics. It is our firm hope that the good people of Ghana will help sustain this campaign. 

We further call on the waste management bodies to hold the government accountable and ensure the sanitation levy is applied judiciously to help in the effective management of waste in Ghana.  

Join us on Saturday 20th March 2021 at 12:00 pm GMT as we educate the public on plastic pollution and discuss sustainable actions.

For further information contact gayoecoclubchapters@gmail.com