The project has made the following achievements:

Conducted house-to-house, and focused group (community, educational/ religious institutions) sensitization that engage stakeholders while distributing sacks for waste segregation and registering households for segregated waste collection. The following communication tools were used for the various communications and awareness including, flyers, posters, jingles, announcements from Local Radio Stations and social media.

Dealing with the plastics already in the system through collection, separation, and utilization. Community clean-up exercise and the launching of a buyback centre were carried out. This was successful as jobs were created through the process and local solutions were promoted (utilizing plastic containers to grow vegetables).

To build the capacity and support informal waste collectors, training and workshops were organized, as well as logistical (gloves, net, and reflectors) and support extended to foster appropriate collections of waste.

The third phase included building livelihood support systems: alternative livelihood training was organized for the community to train women, youth, waste pickers, and physically disabled persons on mushroom farming while leveraging organic waste as a resource.

To assist the Assemblies in effectively delivering their mandate, health and safety training including Plastic management by-laws was organized to train the project management team and Environmental Health Officers with the required skills to spearhead education among community individuals on waste management.

Regarding the first phase of the project implementation, 80 percent of the activities planned have been completed. This included the community sensitization for 4 communities (Mantiase, Adobetor, Olympia and Adiembra) in LADMA, and the distribution of bins, and sacks for segregated plastics to churches, households, schools, and mosques.

Additionally, 258 waste pickers have been registered and supported (capacity built) to efficiently collect plastics. Following this, from the initiation of the plastic recovery at the Material Recovery Facility, 11,000 kg of plastics have been bought back from the community.

Three (3) trainings have taken place including Environmental Health Officers training on Health and safety/plastics management.

Health and Safety Training for Waste Pickers, and Alternative livelihood training (using organic waste for cultivating mushrooms and plastic bottles for growing crops).

One buyback center has been launched and has employed 3 waste pickers. The Integration strategy for informal waste pickers has been initiated with calculated steps in documenting all plans to efficiently recover plastics from the community.

The implementation of this project has seen to the partnership and collaboration of several stakeholders including Coca Cola, Voltic, Ghana Youth Environmental Movement, the district Assembly Unit Committee and 2 signed Memorandums of understanding (MoU) with the La Dade Kotopon Municipal Assembly and a community leader who designated his land to be used as a buyback centre. The engagement with the Ledzokuku Municipal Assembly also begun with the signing of an MoU following the designation of a Liaison Officer for the project in LEKMA









Activities planned and completed this reporting period and results achieved for the second project:

Ninety percent (90%) of the project commission for the second phase of the project's implementation has been executed. This includes;

1.The community sensitization for 3 communities (Fertilizer, Tsuibleoo, and Salem) in LeKMA, and the distribution of bins, and sacks for segregated plastics to schools, mosques, and households.

2. Over 50 households and schools were registered as well and trained on how to segregate their plastic waste into various types of plastics.

3. Additionally, 141 new waste pickers have been registered and trained (capacity built) in LeKMA to efficiently collect plastics. Following this, the plastic recovery at the Material Recovery Facility since the last disbursement is 22,481 kg per month from the community. Report of the event here

4. Three (3) training workshops have taken place including Environmental Health Officers training on Health and Safety/plastics management. Health and Safety Training for Waste Pickers, and Alternative livelihood training for organic waste on cultivating mushrooms and plastic bottles for growing crops.

5. The opening of the second buyback facility in the LeKMA municipality was done but due to concerns about the distance to the buyback center from the community, members of the community get to drop the plastics closer to their homes for the moving tricycle to pick them up.

This has brought our attention to the need for more buyback centers distributed within the community for the effective retrieval of plastics. Additionally, the LeKMA buyback center has designated two tricycles for use in collecting plastic waste.

6. Two (2) Business development training for plastic waste have been organized for the waste workers. They were trained on how to plant Mushrooms with plastics for commercial purposes and grow edible crops using plastics.

7. The construction of the material recovery facility has been completed and is currently in operation in the La Dade-Kotopon municipal assembly. Additionally, 5 persons have been selected as the task force for this project.

8. Urban gardening and mushroom training has been conducted for 20 roadside/street hawkers for them to engage in green business.

9. Community durbar has been organized in the community of LaDMA where all the waste workers in LaDMA and LeKMA were present. Assembly directors and officials, Governmental bodies like MESTI, Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Fire Service, CSOs, CBO, and Stakeholders were engaged

10. A strong partnership has been established with four (4) entities including water producers and packaging companies within the two districts, this helped to link roadside vendors and hawkers for the said participating producers who were taken through a plastic recovery training via the buyback center.

11. In the Second phase of the project, a beach clean-up and a brand audit were organized where we partnered with other youth organizations, the waste workers, and the municipal assembly to track the source of the waste due to feedback from waste pickers about there being more plastic waste at the beaches.

12. Three ecopreneurs; two women and a youth have been introduced to the National Board for Small Scale Businesses (NBSSI); however, a lot more green businesses are being registered and will be added. After the project, an MoU will be signed with NBSSI to fully hand over the businesses to them for mentorship.


Activities planned but not completed in this reporting period and reasons for the delay

A part of this process is still ongoing. We are still training more start-ups for waste workers to be linked to NBSSI and sign an MoU to formalize the relationship.

Dricon water company has been selected to install the water refillable water stations.

Vantage areas have been spotted for the mounting of the refillable water machines. see sample here

An amount of USD 2,479 from this budget component is remaining and will be transferred to Dricon upon completion of work.

The refillable water machine is not being built by a local company as anticipated however, a local startup is being paired up with Dricon to learn and replicate the technology.

The project has been delayed due to the enormous research that needed to be done to produce an accurate machine.

Activities planned to be completed in the next reporting period.

Informal and formal waste worker engagement in LeKMA and LaDMA.

Consultation and surveys with key participants to gather feedback for improvement.

Continues policy engagement at the project location and support to NPAP.


Experience, lessons learnt and issues in this reporting period.

Through this project, GAYO has gained in depth knowledge in plastics and the social dynamics, GAYO is currently helping the National Plastic Action Partnership to define problematic plastics.

The request for home plastic pickup continues to increase as communities prefer closer buy-back centers. This also places a high demand on collection tricycles used.

The request for bins and sacks for the collection of plastics in the community is on the rise. This places high demand on capital as more is spent to acquire the requested support.

LEKMA is a new municipality and thus, there is little resistance and bureaucracies in engagement. However, this also makes them a little hesitant when forming partnerships. We bridged this gap by ensuring continuous communication with the assembly and ensuring that we show successes of previous works with other assemblies.

It is easier to work with the municipal Assembly when a personal relationship is created with the municipal authorities.

Inflation had increased the price of materials and even the increase in fuel affecting the project budget and costs greatly.