EPA calls for more biological waste companies in the country

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called for more companies to venture into biological waste management in the country.

Mr Herbert Edem Kpodo, Principal Programme Officer, EPA, Tema, said the agency has taken steps to ensure that waste segregation is paramount in health facilities; however, the unavailability of companies to manage biological waste is limiting their efforts.

“We need a lot of companies to venture into biological waste management; we have a lot of them in general waste; if we have a lot of them also in biological waste management, they should be able to pick up the waste in its segregated forms and send it to where they’ll dispose of it finally,” he stated.

He told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that biological wastes were very dangerous to human health and were highly inappropriate for any kind of waste management company to manage, hence the need for qualified personnel to handle them.

He mentioned that the high cost of managing biological waste had been a contributing factor to companies not going into biological waste management and, if not addressed with immediate effect, would have a negative impact on the overall health of citizens.

Mr Kpodo suggested that there should be government policies with some form of incentive to encourage companies to venture into waste management, adding that this move, when addressed well, could raise a lot of funds for the country.

The EPA Tema Principal Programme Officer urged Ghanaians to question facilities for not segregating the waste appropriately, and where the facility is recalcitrant to adhere to the rules, they should not hesitate to report to the agency for the necessary actions to take place.

Source: GNA