GAYO, some Accra schools turn to composting and recycling to beat the waste problem with fresh bins

Schools in Accra that separate their waste say their efforts are being wasted because collection trucks mix the sorted rubbish back together when they pick it up. Education officials in the La Dade Kotopon Municipality say the problem has led many schools to give up sorting altogether. Now, the Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) wants to change that. Under its Zero Waste initiative, it plans to collect separated organic and plastic waste directly from schools in seven municipalities across Greater Accra. Madam Habiba Kotomah, Education Director for the La Dade Kotopon Municipality, said some schools were part of an earlier pilot that provided bins for sorting, but the effort collapsed at the point of collection. “We do the sorting in the schools. But when the truck comes around, they put everything back together and it’s frustrating,” she said. “So at a point, most of them stopped the sorting.”