Eazywaste Ghana

I am a dynamic and diverse IT professional with extensive acumen in Research and Entrepreneurship and with over 8 years of progressive experience. I am passionate about sanitation and environmental issues with 3 years of experience building a plastic recycling social enterprise business. I am also a professional with expertise in Database and Administration, Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Data collection. I am continuously building my capacity in cutting-edge tools and solutions in the job market. I poses an excellent oral and written skills. I am also a social media enthusiast, mentor, trainer, and facilitator.

Largely Eazywaste Ghana is solving the problem of plastic pollution and mitigating climate change. Plastic packaging accounts for more than half of plastic waste globally. In this circular economy, Eazywaste is providing clean, affordable, and high-quality HDPE and PET pellets and flakes for reuse as alternatives to virgin plastics to clients in the packaging manufacturing sector. We use geometry cutting technology in granulating plastic waste into pellets and flakes for reuse. Our project reduces and saves twice the amount of energy used to produce virgin plastic. Our projects economize land use as landfills are reduced and prevent plastic waste from landfills. Our project also provides a decent job for youth and women

Global plastic production in 2018 was 390 million tons and estimated to reach 600 million tons by 2030. With a population of 2,475,000 Accra alone generates 5000 tons of solid waste daily of which about 80% is made of plastics and 2/3 of the population lacks proper waste management. Also, 290 million dollars is spent on waste management annually by the government of Ghana (World Bank, 2012) and these monies could have been invested in the health and education sector. The use of plastic for packaging is very prominent in Africa with a growing global market size projected to reach 320.94 billion dollars in 2027. About 2.58 million metric tons of plastics are imported in Ghana annually of which 73% effectively end up as waste with only 19% reused (EPA, 2018). Less than 2% of plastic is recycled.  Sadly 12.7 million tons of global plastic end up in the ocean annually. These plastics end up polluting the environment and the oceans depleting aquatic life, increasing climate change, and causing poor health problems for humans with poor drainage systems. These plastic waste increase government expenditure on health and destroy the work of fishermen.

Eazywaste Ghana capitalizes on education and technology to recycle plastic waste into pellets and flakes by establishing community recycling banks to create proximity for communities to easily recycle and share the benefits to incentivize attitudinal change. We produce HDPE and PET pellets and baled bottles.

Our mission is to take advantage of the circular economy to mitigate climate change and keep the environment clean and green. Since our operation in 2018, we have achieved a recovery and recycling record of 100 tons. Eazywaste Ghana employs 5 permanent and 7 temporary staff of which the majority are women.

Our project serves both the urban and peri-urban communities who are lack proper waste management by creating recycling banks/centers within the community to provide proximity for them to recycle their plastic waste which might have ended up in the landfill, ocean, and polluted the environment. Mostly these communities are cut off from the formal waste collection circle and waste disposal site provided by the municipal assemblies and their waste is not collected leaving them to other alternatives of polluting the environment by burning or throwing it away around the environment. Eazywaste team continuously educates and sensitizes these communities on the needs and avenues to recycle and also establish recycling centers within the community to collect their plastic waste for recycling.

Plastic pollution and climate change have become one of the topical issues across the globe. Eazywaste seeks to provide a safe environment, create awareness, adapt, and mitigate climate change. This purpose of the project resonates with the Elevate prize which seeks solutions that solve complex challenges facing the world and fill the gap.

I was offered a scholarship in 2017 at Founders Institute Ghana where I acquired skills in starting and growing business. I was then staying in a community called Lapaz-Racecourse where the resident burned their waste full of plastic and also littered the environment with their waste. The smoke from the burnt waste became very uncomfortable and that brought back memories of the 2015 Accra circle flood disaster event which claimed more than 150 lives and it was mainly due to blockage of drainages filled up with plastic waste and also the 2012 World Bank report which stated that the Government of Ghana’s expenditure on waste management is 420 million Ghana cedis (290 million dollars) every year.  I contacted some households to find out why that practice and learned they lack access to formal waste management yet they are willing to recycle their plastic waste. This motivated me to start the Eazywaste project to help them recycle their waste.

I am very passionate about the environment and human lives. After the 2015 Accra disaster which almost affected my psychological well being, I saw plastic pollution as a threat to humanity and also an opportunity to impact the lives of the vulnerable and believed these monies spent by the government can be use to boost the health and education sector.  With the rate of plastic production and its estimated growth by 2030, I decided to change the waste culture in Ghana through the community recycling centers/banks to create proximity for community users to collect and recycle their waste. I also wanted to help the government of Ghana cut down its expenditure on waste management which I believed most of the waste is made up of plastics.

I am a dynamic and diverse IT professional with extensive acumen in Research and Entrepreneurship and with over 8 years of progressive experience. I am passionate about sanitation and environmental issues with 2 years of experience building a plastic recycling social enterprise business. I am also a professional with expertise in Database and Administration, Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Data collection. I am continuously building my capacity in cutting-edge tools and solutions in the job market. I poses an excellent oral and written skills. I am also a social media enthusiast, mentor, trainer, and facilitator.

I am an Alumni of the Founders Institute, Acumen Social Enterprise Incubator program, Acumen Fellow, and the Alumni of the Orange Corners Ghana program. I have extensive knowledge and skills in building and growing business. I am currently undergoing business and financial training at African Managers Institute.

During this Covid-19 period, we didn’t fold the business but innovative ways to continue our operations with our collectors. I am very innovative and always achieve targeted results.

I started this business when I have lost my job as a teacher and my dad as well. I had spent all my savings on his burial because I am the only male child of the family. There was no money left for anything. I then contacted friends for assistance and was able to bootstrap for the start of the business.

Again, in the initial stages I applied to many incubation hubs and competitions but we were not selected and that greatly affected my motivation initially to continue but I never gave up but went on to build the business till we started getting traction and getting some incubators coming on board to support us.

Finally, during this Covid-19 period, there has been a reduction in the frequency of visitation to the Eazywaste community recycling centers often and this has posed a barrier to the amount of collecting plastic. Therefore the Eazywaste teams found a creative solution to this situation “If the plastics don’t find us, we will find them”. Via a digital chatbox, households indicate when and where plastics can be collected, after which a truck embarks on the plastic route of the day

Earlier in my career as a Tutor and Head of Department. My team and I were struggling to maintain the computer laboratory at Nkoranza Technical Institute during my period as the Head of Departmentin 2012. We couldn’t afford to replace malfunctioned computer parts because the government has not disbursed money to the school.My team and I came up with an idea to set up a business center with our existing functional computers within the department that willuse students' skills to generate funds to support the department. We wrote a proposal to Africa Development Bank under their

Institutional Production Units (IPUs) component of the Development for Skills Project to help us purchase printers and other equipment including a large format printer. The proposal was accepted and financed. We successfully set up the NTI ICT business center which now offers among others design and other ICT needs of the Nkoranza South Municipality. I am very proud of this achievement under my leadership.

Currently our project serve 5 communities in the Ga West Municipal Assembly of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana with a total number of 2000 residents. We also serve and supply our product 5 manufacturing and construction companies in and around Accra

We hope to increase to 10 communities in the coming year with 15 customer base.

In five we hope to serve 10 municipal Assemblies in Greater Accra region with expansion to the Western Region of Ghana and increase the our customer base to at least 30 customers.

We are currently in talks with Algramo for partnership to supply them products for their reusable packaging and also integrate their IoT technology in our operations.

We are also embarking on international partnership with companies and institutions interested in our product.

Ministry of Sanitation Ghana

Ministry of Education

Youth Without Borders

Azemi Technologies.

We have been funded by the Orange Corners Program and the Youth for Job Program to the tune of 4000 dollars.

We are seeking a grant of 30000 dollars to purchase a GSE 500-500 granulator from Zerma Africa Machinery.