Zoomlion marks World Environment Day with clean-up, awareness initiative

The Zoomlion Ghana Limited has organised a massive cleanup exercise at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra to create public awareness on environmental sanitation to mark World Environment Day.

The activities included weed­ing on the shoulders of the principal streets, manual and mechanical sweeping of the roads, waste collection as well as desilting of choked gutters among others.

The exercise was undertak­en and led by senior staff of Zoomlion and in collaboration with the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly, the security services such as the Ghana Police and the Armed Forces who offered security support throughout the exercise.

The day which is marked globally on June 5, annually has been set aside by the United Na­tions (UN) to inspire worldwide awareness and action to protect the environment.

This year’s event is being cel­ebrated under the theme; ‘Beat plastic pollution.’

The Managing Director of Zoomlion Private Services, Mr Edwin Amoako, in an interview reiterated the need for constant education and awareness creation for the general public on the need for clean environment.

“There are individuals who think that just sweeping and gathering rubbish at their frontage is enough; No it’s not and that’s why we are here to sensitise them,” he noted.

He insisted that constant ed­ucation and awareness creation would bring about the needed change in protecting and keeping the environment clean.

He advised the public to segregate their refuse to facilitate the process of reuse, recycling, and recovery of waste.

“Segregating waste can im­prove the recycling process. For example, separating wet waste from dry waste is a simple way to help recycling companies. It will help to recycle non-biode­gradable waste and treat bio­degradable waste directly,” he emphasised.

“It is important not to allow plastics to pollute the environ­ment when indeed plastic has value,” he stressed.

The Korle Klortey Environ­mental Health Officer, Mr Victor Acquaye, noted that the assem­bly would continue to do its bit in ensuring that the environment was always clean.

He also warned that recalci­trant offenders would be arrest­ed and prosecuted.

He mentioned that last year during the ‘Operation Clean Your Frontage,’ over 200 offend­ers were sent to court for various environmental breaches.

The Director of Monitoring and Service Quality- Zoom­lion, Mr Ernest Kusi noted that people’s attitude to waste management had improved over the years.

“From our monitoring, many people, particularly shop operators, now use bins and have improved upon their waste management,” he asserted.