Coliba was one of the winners of the ‘Waste’ Recovery Innovation Challenge under the Waste Recovery Platform being facilitated by UNDP with the aim to connect stakeholders in the waste management value chain to promote partnerships and access to real-time data.
Coliba, a waste management organization and its partners, Voltic and the Mohinani Group inaugurated the first permanent community buyback centre for plastic waste recovery in Glefe, Dansoman in Accra, with financial support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Netherlands Embassy in Ghana. The centre aims to offer incentives to local communities to collect plastic bottles, aluminium cans and other forms of plastics such as flexible plastics for sale to Coliba.
The initiative is inspired by the success of its community buyback program, a monthly volunteering program organised every 3rd Saturday of the month. The program started in June 2019 when Coliba and its partners such as Voltic, Coca-Cola, some members of the Ghana Recycling Initiative by Private Enterprises (GRIPE), Young Africa Leaders Initiative and Green Legends came together to reach low income and coastal communities with high presence of plastic pollution. As part of this initiative, an educational campaign was launched in selected communities to enlighten community members on the value of plastic waste.
UNDP sees this community buyback initiative as laudable as this will facilitate waste collection for recycling with the direct involvement of the communities.
Coliba intends to launch three other Centers by June 2020 to increase waste collection in Accra.
