– Working to reduce plastic litter in Ghana and support women entrepreneurs –
Accra, Ghana: 7 May 2020 – The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (the Alliance) today announced a partnership with the ASASE Foundation to support women entrepreneurs working to reduce plastic litter in the community. The initiative called Closing the Loop uses a circular economy model, to enable local communities to benefit from discarded plastic waste by collecting, reprocessing, and reselling it.
Closing the Loop kicks off the Alliance’s support for projects based in Africa. It was first launched by ASASE in 2018 to provide seed money to equip a plastic waste reprocessing plant as well as provide technical and business management training to women entrepreneurs to run the recycling plant for profit. The project has already created eight jobs within the community as well as diverted 35 (metric) tons of plastic from waste in the first twelve months. By partnering with the Alliance, the capacity of the reprocessing plant will increase to divert 2,000 (metric) tons of plastic waste per year and create even more jobs.
“A key pillar of ending plastic waste in the environment is the sustainable impact it will bring to the well-being of local communities. This is why our partnership with ASASE is especially meaningful because Closing the Loop is the right step towards a circular economy model. It directly benefits those living in areas which don’t have access to plastic waste collection and sorting systems. This initiative is a simple but scalable action that benefits the environment but supports the inspiring women of Ghana who are building their communities on the path towards ending plastic waste in the environment” said Jacob Duer, President and CEO, Alliance to End Plastic Waste.
“What we value most in our partnership with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste is the access to the expertise in waste management which we can leverage now in our project, effectively multiplying the impact of the funding provided by the Alliance to our project,” comments Dana Mosora, ASASE Foundation Founder and Managing Director.
The partnership has also opened the possibility to bring in expertise from an academic partner, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH, Zürich), in areas as developing new end market applications and developing the concept of a new financing system for the management of plastic waste in Ghana.
The recycling plant processes a range of plastic waste from water sachets (LDPE) to shampoo and detergent bottles (HDPE) and large cooking oil containers (HDPE), converting it into regrinds. The regrinds are then sold to recyclers to make items such as pavement blocks, sheets for construction, basins and liners, most of which goes back into the community.
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About the Alliance to End Plastic Waste
Established in 2019, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste is a not-for-profit organization that includes companies that make, use, sell, process, collect and recycle plastics, including chemical and plastic manufacturers, consumer goods companies, retailers, converters, and waste management companies. The Alliance is the foremost CEO-driven international organization focused on bringing together industry, government, communities, and civil society in the fight to end plastic waste. The Alliance is working to promote programs and partnerships that focus on solutions in four core areas: infrastructure, innovation, education, and clean up. The Alliance membership represents global companies and organizations located throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Gulf. The Alliance global headquarters is located in Singapore.
For more information, visit: www.endplasticwaste.org
About ASASE
ASASE Foundationis a Non-Governmental Organization (N.G.O.) in the greater Accra region of Ghana. It was created in 2017 to enable Ghanaian women entrepreneurs to play a key role in cashing-in on the plastic waste trash of Accra, for the benefit of their own communities.
The ASASE Foundation launched its first social enterprise in November 2019 to reprocess plastic packaging waste collected in the community and with waste pickers who become formal employees and get training to work in a plant. It is managing CASH IT! Recycling plant until it becomes self-sustainable economically, when the assets are transferred to the employees of CASH IT! and the Foundation opens a new plant in a new community in Accra.
For more information, visit: http://www.asasegh.com
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