EFFORTS TO SORT HOUSEHOLD WASTE (Page 3)

25/03/2008

Story: Mary Mensah
THE Chemical Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in collaboration with Zoomlion Company Limited, has begun a pilot project in Kumasi aimed at sorting household waste from selected households.
The project, funded by Zoomlion Limited, will examine the potential for the source-sorting process at the household level, since this provides the most meaningful approach for an integrated waste management system.
According to the Project Co-ordinator, Dr Moses Mensah of KNUST, the results were expected within the next six months.
He said the project involved the composting of the organic fractions and recycling of plastic waste, thereby reducing the quantity of waste that had to be disposed of at the landfill site.
The research will further examine prospects for the production of biogas, as well as the generation of power from municipal waste and landfills through integrated landfill management.
Dr Mensah said the project was expected to lead to a reduction in the quantity of waste that would get to the landfill sites.
He said the source-sorting would a go a long way to solve the problem of waste disposal and create value for the organic and plastic fractions.
“This way, many people will begin to see waste as a resource and a marketable commodity,” he added.
He said the management of Zoomlion did not want to limit itself only to waste collection and that it wanted to engage in using waste for profitable activities.
The Public Relations Officer of Zoomlion, Mr Oscar Provencal, said the current landfills were not adequate and that it was difficult acquiring land for that purpose, hence the need to find new ways of channelling waste.
He stressed that no company could be efficient in waste collection if it had difficulty with acquiring disposal sites.



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