On the 20th of June, 2024, major retail outlets came together to participate in drafting a voluntary pact to reduce 70% of supermarket single use plastics used in Ghana by the year 2030.
A workshop was held at the Alliance Francaise Ghana, attended by major retail outlets like Melcom, Marina Supermarket, Max Mart and All Needs supermarket. The workshop was facilitated by Plastic Punch and GIZ in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and the Environmental protection agency – “Co-designing a voluntary pact to phase down single use plastics in Ghana”.
The pact brings together major stakeholders in the retail sector to take collective action in the fight against single use plastics. All the supermarkets involved will soon be signing a pact to charge a fee for every plastic bag they give at their tills.
Green Butterfly was invited not just as a stakeholder but also as a case study and pioneering success story as single use plastics have been banned in the Green Butterfly Market since the year 2011. Notwithstanding the challenges, the Green Butterfly market has converted over 150 small businesses to use alternatives to single use plastics.
Director of Green Butterfly – Yasmeen Helwani presented valuable information based on Green Butterfly’s reduced plastics policy. “We look forward to presenting our vendors with multiple sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics. Already in the Green Butterfly Market our clients use paper bags, re-usable cloth bags, raffia bags, and baskets for their shopping. It’s high time all major retail outlets take measures to adopt a more responsible approach twards the use of single use plastics.”
Many thanks to Plastic Punch and GIZ! The prospect of seeing collective action by all supermarkets – where all supermarkets agree to charge buyers for plastic bags, is truly exciting. We look forward to bringing you more exciting news on this topic in the near future!