Ghana has received a $13 million grant from the World Bank to boost its efforts to maintain a sustainable environment that depends on recycling and reuse of plastic products.

Speaking to the media after a workshop organised by the World Bank,  an advisor to the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Oliver Boachie, disclosed that the World Bank funded Ghana's plastic recycling economy through its programme ‘PROBLUE’.

PROBLUE is a multi-donor trust fund run by the World Bank with the goal of reducing plastic waste and promoting the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources.

According to Mr. Boachie, the fund would assist Ghana in creating a system where participants in the plastic manufacturing and consumption area will be given more responsibility in the use of recovered goods.

“The World Bank is helping us develop a framework establishment together with an EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) scheme which addresses Ghana’s needs.”

The goal of the workshop was to aid the government in creating a framework that would support an economic system based on the recycling and regeneration of materials or goods as a method of sustaining or environmentally friendly continuous manufacturing.

He also emphasized the necessity for custom policies that reflect Ghana's culture and socioeconomic environment.

Grzegorz Peszko, an economist at the World Bank, advised the government to take into account tax incentives that would make the use of recycled plastics more cost-effective.

He contends that tax incentives for businesses using recycled plastics will promote the use of recycled plastics.

“Ghanaian producers don’t see the incentives to use the recycle content because Europe has policies in place; virgin plastic taxes on packaging. More and more European countries can introduce these taxes. It means that plastic products made from recycled content are cheaper and the difference is the tax.”