The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has urged Ghanaians to adopt sustainable alternatives to styrofoam food packaging as the country prepares to enforce a ban on styrofoam products.
The ban will cover the production, importation, distribution, sale and use of expanded polystyrene foam products, popularly known as styrofoam, including disposable cups, plates and takeaway food containers. It is scheduled to take effect from January 1, 2027.
The call was made during a sensitization outreach in Damongo in the Savannah Region.
The Executive Director of the EPA, Prof. Nana Ama Browne Klutse, said styrofoam packs are destroying lands, choking gutters, polluting the environment and affecting public health. She noted that alternative packaging products are already on the market and more will become available once the ban is enforced.
"These styrofoam, these takeaway packs they are destroying our land, choking our gutters, degrading our environment and more importantly affecting our health. So there are alternative products that are already in the market and once we enforce the ban more of these products will be available," she said.
The Savannah Regional Minister, Salisu Yussif Biawuribe, said the region fully supports the ban and called for intensified education to stop the use of styrofoam. He also urged religious leaders to preach against its use in their congregations.
The Savannah Regional Director of the EPA, Dr. Abu Iddrisu, warned that the widespread use and improper disposal of styrofoam could undermine the region's tourism potential.
"Our parents, mothers, sisters and ourselves deserve better. We cannot develop tourism with litter. No tourist will come to see Mole if the route to Mole is littered with takeaway containers," he said.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service through the Savannah Regional Police Commander, DCOP David Kweku Amoako, has pledged support for the enforcement of the ban, describing the police as friends and protectors of the state's environmental resources.