Allianz Ghana (Life & Non-Life Insurance) organized last Saturday, a beach clean-up & plastic recycling exercise at the La Pleasure Beach in Accra The initiative which is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility campaign known as ‘Allianz Creates Through Waste’ is aimed at the collection of plastic waste for recycling.

According to the CEO of Allianz Insurance, Darlington Munhuwani, there will be monthly clean-ups in various places not limited to beaches alone with special emphasis on clearing our environment of plastic waste which can be recycled. Mr. Munhuwani said, “When you look around town especially at the beaches, there is rubbish, especially plastic waste everywhere. We, as responsible corporate citizens, felt it is important to come and clean the beach so together we live in a clean community.”

Green Environment

CEO of Allianz Life Insurance, Gideon Ataraire said,“We have decided to get involved in cleaning the environment as part of our commitment to the immediate environment where we operate. Our CSR initiatives are well thought out and designed to add real value to our host communities, so our cleaning initiative is borne out of the fact that we believe that a clean environment produces healthy people and a healthy country”.

He also added that the company will also provide bins for collection of plastic waste on the beaches which will be picked up weekly and transported to Nelplast, a project partner that recycles plastic into pavement blocks.

Pavement blocks made from the recycled plastic, he said, will be used to pave part of the Abelenkpe 2 Basic School in Accra. The school, according to him, shares its field with the community and also has no play facilities for the creative development of the pupils. The pupils therefore play on the bare field which hampers their creative & cognitive development.

Mr. Ataraire revealed that the school will therefore receive an environmentally-friendly creative centre using mostly recycled and re-purposed materials. The facelift which includes painting and tree planting will be done in collaboration with the Mmofra Foundation, to redesign and build the school. Mmofra Foundation is a registered non-profit organization based in Ghana dedicated to enriching the cultural and intellectual lives of all children in Ghana.

According to Mr. Munhuwani, “We aim to give them a safe creative centre where children freely express themselves. The theme ‘Allianz creates through waste’ is appropriate and we are going to demonstrate the concept through the garden project at the centre. The plan is to use the garden to grow vegetables and other crops and learn about composting. It is hoped that the pupils will take the knowledge of recycling and composting home to their families and community.”

Allianz staff and the pupils of Abelenkpe 2 Basic School are expected to partake in periodic clean-up and plastic picking exercises as well as trips to various recycling companies. Mmofra Foundation, Allianz staff and the pupils are also expected to come together from time to time to design and build more creative pieces from some recycled material to add to the school’s creative centre. The pupils will be encouraged to help design these creative facilities and top three winners will receive educational packages from Allianz Ghana.