My Work at EnterpriseWorks Ghana


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July 28th 2005
Published: July 28th 2005
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Drainage System in AccraDrainage System in AccraDrainage System in Accra

This is a main drainage system for central accra. If you look closely you can see the plastic waste that is piled up in the water.
The last you heard from me in regards to the projects I was working on in Ghana was just an introduction to the NGO that I am working with and the projects that they are running. Since then I realize I have not really explained what it is exactly that I have been doing in Ghana. When I first introduced EnterpriseWorks (EW) the NGO that I am working with in Accra, Ghana, I mentioned a few projects; the plastic waste research and the wood stove project. These are the two projects that I have been working over the past 2 months, and I will take some time now to explain the plastic waste research project since it’s the one I dedicated most of my time and energy on.

Plastic Waste Research

The Problem
Waste Management has become a sticky problem to most municipal and urban authorities in developing countries, and can be seen specifically in Accra. As a result of widespread urbanization waste generation has greatly increased and waste management has become increasingly difficult. On top of increased waste in general, the introduction of plastic waste has aggravated an already existing waste problem. In particular is the use of
Black Carrier BagsBlack Carrier BagsBlack Carrier Bags

An example of a used black carrier bag that was just thrown on the ground on the street near the office.
plastic film, particularly in the form of black carrier bags and sachet water bags. Black carrier bags are thin black sacs that are used to carry anything and everything. When you buy supplies from the store, or cloth from the market or food from a street vendor all items will be handed to you in one of these black sacs. Sachet water bags, which I mentioned previously, are clear square water sacs that hold filtered drinking water. They are sold in all provision stores, at the markets and lorry parks and all over the streets wherever traffic tends to pile up. The trouble with the widespread sale of these sachet water bags is that once emptied they are improperly disposed of, and end up lining the streets and gutters throughout the city. Honestly, I can’t think of many streets where you wouldn’t be able to find a sachet water bag thrown on the ground. The main problem of this plastic waste is the visual offensiveness of the litter, but most people believe there are more serious consequences related to health and the environment. The plastic film is believed to clog the drainage system which increases flooding problems during the rainy
Sachet Water BagSachet Water BagSachet Water Bag

An example of one of the sachet water bags that someone drank from and then threw on the street.
season, and also creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes. So what exactly is causing this problem? This is what the research study was designed to figure out, as well as some possible solutions and potential ways forward.

The Project
Plastic waste as a serious problem is receiving a lot of media attention in Ghana and as result of this Enterprise Works received funding from USAID to do a study of the actual situation of the plastic waste problem in 3 cities in Western Africa: Accra in Ghana, Lome in Togo, and Niamey in Niger. The basic introduction of the objectives of the project in the proposal that was submitted for funding is as follows:

The project will investigate the problems associated with plastic film waste and the initiatives taken thus far to address them; draw up profiles of the major stakeholders and, following intensive discussions with public and private players, initiate pilot practical activities in some of the worst hit communities to address the problem.

The first objective was accomplished through literature reviews, a reconnaissance survey and a baseline survey. As Accra is the headquarters for EnterpriseWorks(EW) this is where the first study was done and where
Clogged GutterClogged GutterClogged Gutter

One of the many gutters in Accra where the plastic waste as accumulated and may be an added cause for flooding during the rainy season.
I was mainly involved. The reconnaissance survey was a basic introduction to the stakeholders, to know who was working in the industry and who we should target as part of the actual survey; the baseline survey. Once we had a better idea of who was involved and what some of the main causes and consequences were, a questionnaire was designed to be administered to the various stakeholders. On top of the questionnaire the project was expected to carry out interviews with the key players that would describe the organization, what they are doing to help solve the problem and what their views are on the way forward. These would be written up as profiles as mentioned in the project objectives. Both the profiles and the questionnaires composed the baseline survey and were to be done in all 3 cities in western Africa in order to make a comparison of all situations.

All this basic research was designed in the hopes of preparing a document that could be used to describe the situation, the stakeholders, the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders and general views. Following the initial research the project plans to run an education campaign that will help
Flooding in AccraFlooding in AccraFlooding in Accra

One of the joys of Accra during the rainy season, flooding of sewers. Many people are of the opinion that the plastic waste increases the amount of flooding that occurs.
create awareness of the plastic waste as a problem and how best to dispose of it. This educational campaign also includes a one day workshop that targets all stakeholders to sit and discuss an inter-city action plan to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the streets. Following the education campaign, the aim is to start doing technological development. This will involve looking at the results of the research to help design a proper recycling scheme to reduce the effect of the plastic waste. As mentioned before, the idea is to develop something small so that local entrepreneurs can buy the machine to turn plastic waste into something that can be resold. This gives the initial plastic waste a value as a raw material. The hope is to create such value on plastic that people will no longer throw them anywhere on the ground but would keep them, to sell to whoever is using them as a raw material. This phenomenon can be seen in the use of scrap metals in Ghana. Metal waste is not a problem in Accra because every single piece of metal gets reused in some way shape or form. Thus when a car breaks down
Interview with Chairman of Ghana Plastic Manufacturers AssociationInterview with Chairman of Ghana Plastic Manufacturers AssociationInterview with Chairman of Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association

Felix, the project manager, and I are meeting the chairman of the Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association to gather information for the profiles and to receive letters of support to distribute to the various plastic manufacturers
and is no longer serviceable, all the metal pieces are removed by scavengers and sold to the metal workers to be made into something else. It’s quite fascinating actually, and I have had the chance to see it firsthand in the manufacturing of the wood stoves which is the second project run by EW.

My Role
So what does a civil engineer bring to the plastic waste research project? Not much from a technical perspective but I found I was a great resource in computer skills, organization and understanding the problem as a whole. When I arrived, the reconnaissance survey was mainly completed and the project was at the stage where the questionnaire was being designed. The stakeholders had been identified as: general public, importers of plastics, plastic manufacturers, sachet water producers and waste collectors. The general public was given a large sample size to take in the various consumers from market woman and retailers, to workers and parliamentarians. Most of the work that I did was in helping frame the questions to make sure the answers that were given were helpful in explaining the situation on the ground. A lot of this was simply in formatting and laying
Administering Questionnaires in the Lorry ParkAdministering Questionnaires in the Lorry ParkAdministering Questionnaires in the Lorry Park

Felix and I are administering the questionnaire to the local sachet water sellers, I was recording and Felix was translating!
out the questionnaire to be administered. The other role I played was in actually administering the questionnaires and carrying out interviews to create the profiles. Due to a low budget for this part of the project the desired sample size of 100 for the questionnaires was deemed to large. Two surveyors would have to be hired and the project couldn’t afford this. I was able to step in and suggest that I could be responsible for some of the questionnaires thus reducing the need for the 2nd surveyor as I could be an extra pair of hands. As a result, we were able to meet with a wide variety of people particularly in the general public sector which was given 50 questionnaires. For me it was extremely exciting and a great learning experience to travel around and visit a wide variety of people, industries and sectors to administer these questionnaires. I met with local market women who had to have the questionnaire translated in the local language, general managers of plastic manufacturing plants, owners of waste collection companies, government authorities responsible for waste management etc etc. I conducted interviews with the various stakeholders to gather the information for the profiles.
Production Line for Sachet WaterProduction Line for Sachet WaterProduction Line for Sachet Water

We were able to have someone take pictures of the production line at one of the larger sachet water producers. There are over 300 registered operators and probably double unregistered! The vary in all sizes, and locations but this is quite a well known plant.
I visited sachet water production plants, plastic manufacturing plants and recycling plants. I was given tours and was able to see the simple machinery that was used to produce a product. Let’s just say the methods used in Ghana are labour intensive and don’t rely on machinery to do all functions. For example, at the recycling plant, plastic sachet water bags were turned into the black carrier bags. These black carrier bags were cut into squares and then punched BY HAND to make the required handles. Something that would be completely unheard of in plants in North America. As would be the wearing of open toed sandals, or going barefoot in the plant!

As a general explanation my days would be spent driving around in the pick-up to visit the various stakeholders for meetings, to drop or pick-up questionnaires at manufacturing plants, or waste collectors. I have a very good understanding of the city as a result which is comforting because I know my way around better now. Finding the various waste collectors and plastic manufacturers was interesting as places here don’t really have street addresses. We received a list of waste collectors from the Accra Metroplitan Assembly which
Step 4 in the Recycling PlantStep 4 in the Recycling PlantStep 4 in the Recycling Plant

This is one of many steps in the process of turning used sachet water bags into black carrier bags. At this stage the plastic has been shredded, washed, dried, compressed and is being melted and streamed into wormlike pieces of hard black plastic pellets.
is the Municipal authority in Accra. The description of one location of a waste collector was: behind the Beaubeshie Presbytarian Church, and that was a more specific location! Some were just sub-urbs. To find them, we would go to the sub-urb ask around and hopefully stumble across it before too long. It still amazes me how we found them and how the driver and my manager even knew where to start! Especially since my manager isn’t a native of Accra! The best part was when we got to an area where the location had changed which happened on more then one occasion and it turns out that the new location is on the opposite side of the city. Such is life in Ghana! Finding the plastic manufacturers was a bit easier because they are mainly located in two industrial areas so we would just go there and drive around until we spotted a signboard advertising a plastic manufacturing company! Somehow not very efficient and took an extremely long time but there wasn’t much else we could do about it. Street addresses just don’t exist and if you are trying to find where you are going a street address won’t even
Small child drinking sachet waterSmall child drinking sachet waterSmall child drinking sachet water

I mentioned before how children are carried tied to the back of their mothers. This child here is lucky in that he gets to drink clean filtered water from one of the sachet water bags.
help you because often you won’t even be able to find that street! I can definitely say that my level of patience has sky rocketed since being here. The urgency in getting things done has diminished and you sort of just accept whatever happens. If someone is late to meet you, you just keep waiting. If one day you drive around in a truck and don’t manage to find a single place you are looking for all morning you keep looking in the afternoon. Time doesn’t have the same importance in Ghana and people are willing to give you their time so you have to be willing to give them yours in return. So you wait, and you zone out and your mind wanders and watches everything as you sit in the truck and listen to a local radio station saying something hilarious to everyone else in the truck but you because you have no idea what they are saying!

An interesting thing that is happening in Ghana is a company that is exporting plastic waste to be recycled in Asia. A man, who spent about 20 years in the US returned to Ghana and had a desire to create a company that would help clean the city and employ the youth. With this desire he built this export company that pays youth a very small amount to collect plastic waste and then he has it exported. The quantity being exported is minimal right now as the company just started exporting in January but it’s an interesting solution to a problem. This solution is one that received some support as a current solution until the constraints limiting current recycling attempts could be reduced. Right now large scale recycling is not very feasible due to high electricity costs, collection problems and lack of standards. In fact one of the recyclers that I met with was thinking about closing down because he isn’t able to generate any profit. As a result, people see exporting as a current solution to reduce the effects of plastic waste until a long-term solution could be set up. However, the scale at which the export company is currently operating is so small that the daily amount of plastic waste produced in the country was exported in a period of 4 months! Another interesting fact is that most of the general managers of the plastic manufacturing plants that I visited were Indians and not even local Ghanaians.

One thing I saw in doing this research was how political the entire situation was. Meeting with each stakeholder I was able to obtain the view each stakeholder had of the problem but also of the other stakeholders as well. Partnerships that once existed were broken and new partnerships were formed with the aim to help solve the problem but also to help themselves.

Needless to say the work I’ve been doing with the plastic waste project is definitely not quite the sort of work I thought I would be doing in Africa but it’s given me a very good perspective of the way Ghana as a developing country functions. I’ve discovered problems that exist in the systems that are set up to support the country, industries and general welfare of Ghanaians. I became frustrated with the lack of organization, record keeping and even more so the complete lack of rules and regulations providing standards for operation. To hear that those people producing drinking water do not have any standard for quality to adhere to was completely shocking. To think that something could be sold as safe drinking water and have actually no idea to what level that “safe” was, was hard for me to comprehend. Coming from North America where everything needs to be labeled, stamped, go through various inspections in order to meet safety and health standards it seemed completely illogical. So I started asking questions as to why. Why are there no standards? Basically it’s not that the standards don’t exist or that people don’t want them to exist, but rather the system for enforcement, for monitoring and making sure they are being followed doesn’t exist. As a result, plants operate at the bare minimum, the cut corners whenever possible to save costs and to compete with all other’s in the industry. Fortunately, the market does control a certain level of quality in that what people like will continue to be bought. If a certain brand of something is making them sick, or they don’t like the taste or whatever, they won’t keep buying it. In this way, the consumer controls a lot of how industries function in Ghana. What people want and what people end up buying is what is made, rather then what meets all the safety codes, health codes, environmental codes etc etc. It’s been a completely different perspective of Africa then what I learned from BBC or WorldVision.

Results and Conlusions
Right now the 1st Quarter Report for the plastic waste project is finished, which means all the initial research for Accra has been completed. The questionnaires were administered and results analyzed, multiple interviews and meetings were held with the various stakeholders and their profiles were compiled. The report was written, edited and sent to the EnterpriseWorks head office in Washington for review before finally making its way into the hands of our donor at USAID. Let me explain something about reporting and funding. When a donor provides money to carry out a project it comes with strings attached. There is some sort of reporting system that needs to be followed and this system varies from donor to donor and project to project. Somehow the NGO needs to prove that work is being done and that desired results are being achieved. From the view of the donor it’s a necessity to make sure their money is not being abused but from the view of the NGO it’s a painful part of work that often controls the activities that are being carried out. For example, the deadline for this large report that we were preparing was July 1st. However, the week leading up to this date was so busy in trying to collect all the questionnaires from the stakeholders that there was no way we were going to make the deadline. We ran into some difficulties in getting cooperation from the various groups, particularly from the sachet water producers and the plastic manugacturers, as they have been in the spotlight as the people responsible for the plastic waste problem in the media. As a result, we found many people didn’t want to provide any information regarding their company that could potentially be used against them. Logical of course, but frustrating to deal with when you are trying to meet a deadline. Fortunately, we were able to build a good relationship with the chairman and chairwoman of two associations: The Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association, and the National Association for Sachet Water Producers. Both lent their support in writing letters to the general managers on our behalf requesting participation and allowing us to attend a meeting where we could explain to everyone our intentions and goals. As a result, we received very accurate responses but it took a bit more time. In explaining our difficulties, we were able to push back the deadline by one week but even still it meant we were frantically trying to write up all the results the following week and present it in such a way that people with no background on plastics or Ghana would understand. Needless to say deadlines mean that steps taken to make a better report were dismissed and basic necessities become more important. Such is the way of the donor-driven NGO. If you don’t meet their needs, you don’t receive funding to carry out the project. It’s sad, because the importance of helping alleviate poverty comes second. Because of the role I had played in meeting with all the stakeholders I was responsible for putting together all the profiles. I was also asked to review and edit all the other sections as well. This was both exciting to be a part of but also frustrating. There were 4 of us working on 4 different parts of the report and some were more motivated then others. Such is the life of working in a team I suppose! Anyway, after a very busy couple of weeks and a second delay in the deadline, the final document was sent 42 pages and all to the necessary people. I haven’t heard how it was received as I’m sure it hasn’t even been fully read yet!

Let me just clarify something about plastic waste as a problem. Many people surveyed agreed that there was a plastic waste problem and found it very serious in Accra. However, people wanted to clarify that the plastic waste itself is not a problem it’s the management or lack thereof that is creating a problem. From the results of the survey we did it shows that a wide variety of people think that a major reason plastic waste is actually a problem is because of the attitudes of Ghanaians and the lack of education on proper disposal and recycling techniques. This attitude thing too I find is connected to education as well. People would say things like if they don’t throw their plastic waste on the ground then the street cleaners who work for the municipal government won’t have a job. So their littering is creating employment!! I think the only way to influence these types of attitude and perspectives is through education. However, I don’t think education alone is enough to solve the problem but I think it’s an important ingredient. The other solution as mentioned before is the export of plastic waste until a proper long-term solution can be implemented, and most people saw local recycling as the best solution. It should create a long term result, plus it creates jobs for Ghanaians. I agree with the solutions that were identified, however its how to go about the implementation that I struggle with. If the system for supporting initiatives is not stable how will any changes be beneficial? Also, it seems like the government has a large role to play in making recycling a more feasible option such as providing subsidies on recycling or even reducing electricity costs for commercial operation and how do you best go about bringing these changes? EW plans on developing a small scale technology that could be operated by local entrepreneurs. It provides them with employment, creates extra jobs and uses plastic waste to create a new item to be sold as I mentioned before. The question I wonder is the capacity of this type of recycling scheme to actually reduce the amount of plastic waste seen in the streets. If an export company can only handle the daily generation in 4 months what will be the capacity of small scale recyclers? Is it a viable solution to actually help reduce the plastic waste on the streets? How will the initial plastic waste be collected? Where will the money come from? Is it affordable and sustainable once the money coming from NGO support runs out? It seems the more you learn about a problem or situation in Africa the more questions you are faced with. Please if anyone was any comments or advice regarding plastic waste management in Africa please feel free to share them. I’d love to hear what other people are thinking. Also, ask questions about the work, particularly if there are any gaps in my explanations.

I think that summarizes the plastic waste research work that I’ve been doing. I really enjoyed the work, the experience and the perspective I have obtained of urban Ghana. At first I wondered if I would be disappointed that I wasn’t experiencing the rural livelihood of Africa. However, I realized after awhile that the things I was learning about Africa and the perspective I was seeing was just as valid as the rural, if not somehow more important because quite often it’s not the perspective that is presented back in North America. You can look forward to a better description of this perspective in my next update!!!


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29th July 2005

Awsome Work!!
Its great that you are not only helping out, but enjoying your working experience as you are able to experience hand in hand the difficulties these people are going through!! Accura needs more people like you in the world!!
2nd August 2005

Its great to see what your up to and hear about your amazing experiences. Keep up the postings as they are very informative and take good care of yourself. Cory
3rd August 2005

Good going!
Dear MS. Mitchell: I have read your article on your plastic research and your privious journal as well. I was in Ghana for 1 year 2003. Since then I have been working on developing an ecovillage project near Gomua. I was researching plastic manufacturers in ghana when I found your blog. I have recently returned from California and Calearth instiute where I apprenticed to learn super adobe technology to bring to Ghana. It is an amazing building technology the uses earth to build with. Please see www.calearth.org. Anyway I am looking for a plastic manufacturer in Ghana that makes sand bags or has the capacity. Our contained earth houses are made with sandbag material. Do you know of someone that does that kind of manufacturing? I was also very concerned about the water industry and the plastic waste. My best solution is education beginning in primary school and a national litter campaign. I am from Oregon state and when I was a child in the 60's the governemnt of Oregon started a litter campaign. There was a mascot called the "litter Bug" he was nasty sort and nobody wanted to be a litter bug. Really a sense of pride and ownership is the only way and it has to be taught. Then of course too you have to have methods for people to dispose of waste properly. Yu should check out the PBS Website and look up New Heros. There is a woman by the name of Ruiz who is doing some great work with the garbage situation in Peru. She may have some ideas that would workin Ghana. Also I really believe that water privatization with only make matters worse. Oh Gosh, I really am too tired to try to hold an intellegent paragraph. I admire your work and hope that you will still be in Ghana when I get back. In the mean time I would like to have some small dialouge. I know how hard it can be from there and you must be very busy. Please though cn you direct me to a plastic manufacturer. Also please visit the calearth websie and send me any feed back. Thanks for everything that you are doing. Regards, Dorinda Kline Kokrobitey Ecovillge

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