There has been an outcry over the littering in Ghana caused by water sachets left after drinking. I have a suggestion for the government.
The first solution is for the manufacturers of the machines to come up with a solution to produce bottled water, instead of sachets. The machines already in use should be redesigned to fill bottles instead of sachets. This will not be hard to do. The manufacturers should come up with that solution if they are banned from selling the sachet machines in the country. Their agents in Ghana have a list of all their customers they have sold to. They should re-tool all the old machines so that the owners do not loose their investments.
The second solution is to place a refund fee, whereby for every bottle returned, the customer gets some money.
If this plan is implemented, a lot of employment will be created. Plastic bottle manufacturers will increase production; also people will go about collecting bottles to claim refunds. Recycling plants should be established to either clean the bottles collected or new bottles could be molded from the old ones.
In the long term the problem of plastic sachet littering should be substantially reduced if not eliminated all together.
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