Sesa Recycling by GRIPE

Area of Focus:

Waste-Free World

Geography:

Ghana

Ghana generates around 840,000 tons of plastic waste per year, of which only 9.5% is collected for recycling. Alongside widespread littering, there are inadequate measures to effectively recover post-consumer plastics from the environment. This results in huge amounts of plastics ending up on the streets, blocking gutters and leaking into the oceans and waterways, causing both health and environmental challenges. 

 Sesa Recycling is a waste management enterprise that has created a waste-to-value business model in Ghana. It generates revenue from the sale of processed recyclables (PET/HDPE/PP/LDPE) which are de-labelled, crushed/compressed and sold to recyclers and the local industry to create new products (bottles, plastic items, pipes).  

 It also offers innovative recycling services, including programmes where households, faith-based organisations and schools can accumulate recycling points stored in a digital wallet. Every point can be redeemed for mobile money, data or to pay the electricity bill. 

 Sesa Recycling is a partner of GRIPE (Ghana Recycling Initiative from Private Enterprise), an industry-led coalition formed under the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI). GRIPE has helped with the project execution, including helping to secure assistance from TRANSFORM. With TRANSFORM’s support, Sesa’s collection model has been expanded, empowering waste pickers and increasing recycling rates. The project seeks to set up a total of four collection points in different communities, including three stationary collection points and one movable collection unit. In each targeted community, Sesa is currently empowering waste-pickers by providing protective equipment and training. This grant will enable selected waste-pickers to move from a daily wage to salaried workers. 

 The expansion will ultimately increase the amount of collected plastics sent to recycling. By scaling up this model, the project will enable an additional 1,000 tonnes of plastics each year to be diverted from landfill and environment into recycling and end-uses.