Plasti-Thon Ghana Challenge for schools to be launched

The Plasti-Thon Ghana Challenge, a competition designed to inspire schoolchildren make plastic recycling part of their everyday routine and way of life, will be formally launched in October 2014 in Accra under the theme “Tackling Plastic Waste to Secure Our Future: A Must, Not A Choice for Every Child”.

The challenge, which will be open to basic and junior high schools (JHS), will encourage them to collect used and clean plastic-waste.

In gathering plastic for this competition, the schools will be required to collect not only from their homes and schools but also from their neighborhoods, thus directly involving their communities and spreading the word on the need to recycle.

The seasonal exercise will first commence in the Greater Accra Region and later be rolled out in the other regions, and run in parallel with the schools’ academic terms.

Interested schools will be required to register at no cost to participate, and schools with the highest collections will be rewarded at formal ceremonies.

The philosophy for instituting the Plasti-Thon Challenge, according to Nana Adwoa Danquah, Project Manager, is “primarily to inspire and inculcate the habit of recycling into our children, for them to cultivate proper and right ways of disposing plastic waste which is now a menace in our country, as well as to be good custodians of the environment”.

She added that corporate institutions, NGOs and individuals are welcome to support/spearhead this project grow from pilot to nationwide application.