Ashok Mohinania
More than 9 tonnes of recyclable waste materials have been generated by over 8,000 school-children between the ages of 9 and 13 under the Mohinani Group Recycling and Waste Management campaign since its inception in 2016.
The recyclable waste materials, which were made up of 5.5 tonnes plastics and 3.6 tonnes papers, were collected and segregated by 26 primary schools drawn from Accra and Kumasi during the four- month competition.
During the awards ceremony for the 2018 winners, Ashok Mohinani, Executive Director of the Mohinani Group, noted that over GHC290,000 has been spent so far from the initiative that serves as one of the group’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.
Mr. Mohinani said the recycling campaign formed part of the group’s commitment towards education, waste management, recycling and health to improve and promote a safe and healthy environment for Ghanaians.
The campaign, designed to help build a sustainable, healthy environment and future for Ghanaians, has directly educated over 8,000 pupils in proper waste management and recycling across the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions.
The core target for the campaign was children between the ages 9 and 13 years with the belief that they have the power to influence their peers and families within the communities in which they live.
The group believes the children have the power to create wealth for themselves through proper waste management and recycling.
Apart from the recycling initiative, the group, through its numerous corporate social responsibility programmes in education and health over the last 50 years, has helped to improve the living standards of Ghanaians at large.
The Mohinani Group currently has recycling plants in all factories where plastic waste is recycled and re-used for production of other plastic products.
The Executive Director pledged the group’s commitment to sustaining the campaign and drive for proper waste management and recycling in our communities in order to improve and enhance living conditions in our country.
The Reverend Thomas Clegg Methodist School, Kaneshie emerged as the Overall Best School for 2018 with 1,229kg of recyclable waste and received a package made up of educational literature, equipment and accessories worth 5,000 cedis.
The Class 2M of the same school also emerged as the Overall Best Class with 87kg recyclable waste and were treated to a KFC Party for their outstanding performance.
The campaign, which was run in a form of a competition amongst the schools, was under the theme: “Celebrating our Past, Inspiring our Future” and was in partnership with Environment 360, an NGO and the Ghana Education Service (GES).