Environment Protection Agency (EPA) will today Friday 9th June 2023 end the week-long plastic picking exercise in Orogu Bridge, Jui and Lumley communities with the aim of raising awareness on the hazard of plastic pollution.
The agency embarked of the exercise to join the global community in observing the World Environmental Day commemorated on, 5th June this year.
It also demonstrates the agency’s commitments to ending plastic pollution in the country owing to the facts that plastic pollution now a global concern.
Director, Environment Protection Agency, Sheku Mark Kanneh reiterated that plastic pollution is a national threat as it hardly a place visit across the country that you can’t find plastic littered all over.
He disclosed plastic waste is a major problem in slums bordering Freetown, hence a public health issue.
The Theme of this year’s World Environmental Day, “Beat Plastic Pollution,” seems deliberate to help sustainable solutions and behavioral change towards the management of plastic wastes. The global theme called for a reminder of its threat globally and also placed a question mark on the use of plastic in everyday life.
According to the agency, food wrappings, plastic bags and bottles coupled with its improper disposal end up littering communities, drainages, dumpsites that eventually ends up in beaches, rivers, waterways and seas.
The agency also explained how plastic continues to pose threat to the country’s marine animals. According to the agency, discarded plastic that ends up in rivers and the sea, entangle fishing lines, enter the food chain of fishes confuse it for food that clogs stomach of fishes, leading to the death of fishes.
Sierra Leone as a nation operates a small plastic manufacturing sector generating about 96,000 metric tons of plastic products every year, which in itself is not enough to take on the pending war against plastic wastes.
Regardless of the huge battle ahead, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, its agencies and the World Bank told the press that they are working to ensure the environment is clean always thereby collectively beats plastic pollution.
