PROVIDING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO PLASTIC WASTE IN AFRICA - UK Registered Charity No: 1114639 www.humanitascharity.org - Humanitas Charity

PROVIDING
  SUSTAINABLE
 SOLUTIONS TO
PLASTIC WASTE IN
     AFRICA

    UK Registered Charity No: 1114639
        www.humanitascharity.org

BACKGROUND TO HUMANITAS CHARITY
   Humanitas is a UK registered charity that has offered access to healthcare, education and a family
   to some of the world’s most underprivileged children for the past 20 years. Our work has reached
    nine countries and we are focused and committed to bringing lasting and sustainable change to the
   lives of vulnerable children through our schools, foster care and emergency healthcare projects.
   We are a registered charity in Ghana where we have been working on the ground for the past 8
    years. We work alongside local communities, not over them, and we employ local staff to help set
   up and run our schools.
   We have always taken pride in the holistic approach that we take to our projects, and we strongly
   believe that our humanitarian efforts are strengthened by what we can do to protect the natural
   environment, with this is mind over the last 2years we have brought on an environmental team.
   Many of the people that we support live in poverty, do not have access to clean water and their
   villages, rivers and beaches are heavily polluted with plastic waste - which has a negative impact on
   their health and livelihoods.
   THE NEED FOR PLASTIC WASTE SOLUTIONS IN GHANA
   Currently, around 2.58 million metric tonnes of raw plastics are imported into Ghana annually, of
   which 73% ends up as waste. Sadly, less than 0.1% of the waste is recycled, meaning all the plastic
   waste generated ends up in landfil or is littered around the towns and countryside. In addition to
   this, global waste management company, Veolia, reports that Ghana is currently producing 2,000
   metric tonnes of waste per day, of which only 60% is collected. This means that 800 tonnes of
   waste is either burnt illegally or ends up in Ghana’s waterways that lead to the ocean with studies
   highlighting Ghana's contribution to marine debris to be 1-3% of the globes total per year,
   ranging between 92,000-260,000Mt/year. Although Ghana has joined the Global Plastic Action
   Partnership (GPAP) to focus on strategies to combat plastic management, this action plan only
   focuses on urban cities and not rural areas of the country.

      LIMITED AWARENESS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES MEANS THAT PLASTIC WASTE IS OFTEN
     BURNT IN THE OPEN AIR IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. THIS HAS SERIOUS HEALTH IMPLICATIONS
              FOR THE PEOPLE LIVING IN THESE COMMUNITIES, INCLUDING CANCERS.

   THE NEED FOR PLASTIC WASTE SOLUTIONS IN AYENSUAKO, GHANA
   From initial R&D from our team, we have estimated that the community of Ayensuako which holds
   1,200 people currently produces between 80-100kg/day of plastic of which is either discarded into
   the local environment, burnt or used to light fires in replacement of kerosene. An estimated value
   of between 29,200-36,500kg of plastic being produced in Ayensuako per year. The team's
   research has also highlighted that plastic waste and pollution is causing the degradation of the
   local environment in turn causing a negative impact on the yield of crops and farming and increase
   of disasters, for example flooding which occurs more frequently.

Plastic Swap Shop                               Humanitas Charity | UK Registered Charity No: 1114639

OUR SOLUTION - PLASTIC SWAP SHOPS
    Our Plastic Swap Shop is a low cost, innovative solution to eradicating and utilising plastic waste in
    rural communities. The system and model will ultimately create a community hub where plastic
    waste can be exchanged for products created at our Plastic Swap Shop, educational fees, medical
    insurances, every day groceries and utilities.
    The process is simple and effective. Locals
    collect the plastic from the beaches, homes and
    countryside and bring it to our purpose built
    Plastic Swap Shop. From our shop the plastic will
    be separated into the varying plastics of which
    separated plastic will either be bundled and sold
    or extruded (melted down) and made into
    practical household items such as plates, cups,
    bowls, water holders/containers and furniture.

    Our local team and high school students will also
    collect plastic from the local community through
    regular clean ups and will install new innovative
    metal nets called Trashboom's to collect plastic  Ayensuako, Ghana 2020
    waste from the rivers and streams. This plastic
    will then make further objects which can be sold
    at an affordable price to local communities and
    enable the project to become self-sustaining by
    the end of year two.

    After two years we aim to have a blueprint that
    can be replicated in developing communities
    around the world. We will work with current
    and future partners to develop a full product
    range including the production of compliant
    building materials for the construction of homes
    in the developing world.
                                                        Extrusion Machine

   Products created by extrusion machine

Plastic Swap Shop                                Humanitas Charity | UK Registered Charity No: 1114639

OUR ENVIRONMENTAL TEAM
    Our environmental directors, Tommie and Rebecca, have over six years experience
    working on pioneering sustainability and environmental action programmes within the
    travel and tourism sectors around the world. They have a collective passion for finding
    innovative ways to tackle plastic pollution. They have established UK and international
    clean up days, they have delivered environmental workshops in schools across the UK
    and Africa and prevented over 1.6 million plastic toothbrushes and 32,000kg of virgin
    plastic from entering landfill. Rebecca and Tommie will work alongside our project
    manager in Ghana to establish, run and monitor the progress of the Plastic Swap Shop.
     The project has also attracted interest from a leading sustainability architect who will be
    working alongside us to develop the potential to manufacture plastic bricks for housing
    construction.

         'This project has the potential to make a real impact to reduce plastic pollution in rural
       communities in developing nations, and we are looking forward to working closer with the
                               team in the coming months and years ahead'
                                              Mike Bilodeau
                                   Director of Plastic Oceans Europe

Plastic Swap Shop                               Humanitas Charity | UK Registered Charity No: 1114639

THE COST

   We are seeking £140,350 to cover the full cost of setting up and running the Plastic Swap Shop
   project for two years. This sum includes acquiring the land, construction, equipment, staff training
   and monitoring costs as well as two years running costs. A full breakdown of costs is available on
   request.

   This pilot project will give us the expertise, confidence and know how to roll out Plastic Swap
   Shop's across the developing world and volatile areas where waste management and waste
   disposal is either very little or non-existent.

   Help us to make an indelible impact on the natural environment in Ghana, the start of a global
   impact project and be part of an innovative solution to a global problem that we must take action
   on now.

   CONTACT
   Email: tommie@humanitascharity.org
   Telephone: +44 7944848933

   www.humanitacharity.org
   UK Registered Charity No: 1114639

Plastic Swap Shop                               Humanitas Charity | UK Registered Charity No: 1114639