(Problem and Solving)

Burning

Burning per my own words could simply mean setting fire to something. I am restricting myself to my environment which is going to be Tema in Ghana. This is because, this report has to be research based and I can only restrict myself to this area because of the rise in Covid-19 cases in Ghana here.

Trash is something we cannot completely do away with. Whether recyclable or not, they pose dangers to the environment when they are improperly disposed (problem definition).  

Here in Ghana, we have a private company that visit individual homes to collect trash. The people are made to pay for this service they provide. Popularly among them is “Zoomlion” a company well known around Ghana for their work in the collection of trash. Because they charge pretty high for the collection of these trashes, it has discouraged people from participating in their work. They charge averagely around Gh¢40.00 which is around $8.00. This might seem small but for the average Ghanaian earner, it is a lot of money. Another problem is also a fact that, this trash collecting companies sometimes take too long to come and collect the trash. This forces some people to burn the trash they make. As a result, the environment does not become polluted alone, the trash burning contributes to global warming and possibly climate change.

It would be surprising to know that even the companies who come for trash from our various homes, actually end up burning the trash themselves. One of their dumping site is actually about 5 km from where I personally stay and anytime I pass by, I see huge volumes of smokes being ejected into the environment. I was there around February 2020 and realized that the trash had been extremely burnt. Further checks brought a revelation which could be as shocking to anyone reading this report like myself when I got to know.

Apparently, during one of their usually burning of the trash, the fire went out of control and per what I was told through questioning, the trash had been burning for more than three months consistently without quenching and the keep fueling it by adding more trashes picked up from our various homes. This so serious to the extent that drivers need to roll up all of their (mirror/windows/glasses) to avoid excessive smoke from entering their vehicles. And they need to turn on their high lights so that they can navigate smoothly on the smoke filled roads.

This is a big problem for I believe the other companies who come around collecting our trashes would end up burning them and inversely harming the environment. A few solutions to this problem could be made, some of which are already in action in the country.

There is a company I saw on television who run a similar business like Zoomlion but relatively, they charge less and amazingly they actually recycle the trash they collect from our homes, separate them into various components; They use some for fertilizer and others for plastic ware like plastic chairs, bowls, and buckets. This means that investment could be made by interested persons in the sanitation sector of the environment to recycle trash into something very useful to humankind and to make more capital from it. Investors and generational thinkers must be encouraged to therefore invest in the sanitation sector because it is a clean to make profit whiles making the environment safe for living.

Another practicable solution would be on the need to educate the people. Citizens of my town could possibly be ignorant of the ripple effect of burning so education becomes a key as usual here. Communication through ads, social media, news portals, and the general media could be enacted to help spread the education of the need to avoid burning and its effect. This is something I will start myself.

Considering the two solutions provided and the fact that I did mention that we cannot do away with trash, any of this two solutions could help reduce the rate of burning in my environment and possibly other environments locally and internationally.

Green Cheers form Ghana!