Environment 360, Australian High Commission launches innovation circular hub to empower women
Environment 360, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in partnership with the Australian High Commission has launched the first ever Circular Hub at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region.
The facility seeks to empower women in plastic waste collection and to take also advantage of the business opportunities in the plastic waste value chain in processing waste into viable products for commercial and household use.
The programme was organised by Environment 360 and funded by Australian Aid with support from Dodowa Municipal Assembly under the first batch of seven women with six months training.
Speaking at the launch, the Deputy Australian High Commissioner, H.E. Nicole Guihot commended Environment 360 for spearheading the entrepreneurship drive of women in the country, adding that the NGO is working assiduously in empowering women in waste picking to become small scale innovators as well as key actors in the plastic waste space.
According to her, the Australian government have invested a whopping sum of $40,000 into the project which will support women to acquire hands on skills by turning used plastic into recycled products and explained that the move will challenge them to earn better incomes for livelihoods.
She pointed out that, the plastic wastes which could have caused environmental hazards are now been processed through numerous innovations at the hub and thus commended the women for taking up the challenge to become business owners in earnest.
H.E. Nicole Guihot congratulated Environment 360 for the laudable initiative saying the project will help transform the lives of women through economic business empowerment and job creation.
“Improving sanitation and waste management services across Ghana and other West African countries is one of the objectives of the Australian High Commission’s Direct Aid programme”, she said.
For her part, the Executive Director of Environment 360, Ms Cordie Aziz-Nash, said the project will create 2,000 jobs and recycle close to 10,000 metric tons of plastic in the next five years through its training programs.
She said the hub will further create green jobs by providing technical skills and capacity training to help communities add value to waste streams and thus called for private partnership to expand operations to other communities.
Madam Lydia Owusua, a waste picker expressed her profound gratitude to Environment 360 for the training programme saying it has built her capacity to acquire hands on skills to produce plastic beads, cups, pads, combs and other items for the Ghanaian market.
Source: Ben LARYEA
