Ghana will soon stop importing and producing Styrofoam, locally known as 'takeaway packs'.

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President John Dramani Mahama disclosed this information at the launch of the 2025 national tree planting exercise on Thursday, June 5.

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President Mahama stressed the urgent need to ditch Styrofoam for other materials, describing it as one of the most harmful pollutants.

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According to President Mahama, the initiative is to reduce the impact of climate change, protect the country’s forest cover, and reduce plastic waste.

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“One of the most polluters is Styrofoam plastics, where you go and buy your food, and they put it in that whitish something, and you finish eating, you just dump it. That is one of the biggest polluters. And so, we’re going to ban the importation of Styrofoam plastics.

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“We have to use paper packaging or aluminium foil for our food. I’m informing the manufacturers and importers of Styrofoam that the Ministry of Environment, soon we are going to ban the importation of Styrofoam and production of Styrofoam in Ghana,” he said.

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The Ghanaian government has introduced various initiatives aimed at tackling plastic waste.

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Although the government has made several attempts to address the sanitation crisis in Greater Accra, many of these initiatives have failed to achieve a lasting impact.

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These efforts started in 2008 with a ban on plastic production and imports.

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In 2011, a Plastic Waste Recycling Fund was established, and a 10% Environmental Excise Tax was levied on imported plastics to support recycling and waste management programs.

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The government also introduced the National Plastics Management Policy in 2020, which seeks to manage plastic waste across its entire lifecycle and promote a circular economy for plastics.

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Despite these measures, the issue of proper plastic waste disposal remains a significant challenge, exacerbated by low awareness regarding safe and sustainable disposal practices such as segregation, recycling, and controlled incineration.

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