Wastes in the wild: types, effects, and management of plastic waste at Mole National Park, Ghana

Abstract

AbstractAvailable data show that the number of tourists visiting Ghana’s national parks has increased noticeably. Visitors usually carry with them plastic materials for their convenience and use, which are eventually disposed-of in the parks. Primarily, ensuring that national parks, which are ecologically sensitive natural environments are free of plastic waste is a major challenge for park managers. This research, therefore, sought to understand the different types of plastic waste that are generated in the Mole National Park (MNP) of Ghana, the effects they have on the environment, and the strategies being adopted by the park managers to manage the waste so generated. The study was purely qualitative and employed interviews to collect data from fourteen respondents, with the data coded thematically and analysed. It was found that used plastic bottles, take-out trays, plastic grocery bags, and sachets were the commonly disposed of plastic materials in the MNP. The study further found that the improper disposal of these plastics in the MNP led to pollution, destruction of the park’s aesthetic beauty, plastic ingestion and entanglement, and disease outbreaks. While the main waste management methods in the MNP were either to burn, bury, reuse, upcycle, or sell the plastic waste generated, it is recommended that in the medium to long term, efforts should be made to insulate the MNP of plastics by banning the use of plastics in the park or limiting the type of plastics permitted to only recyclable ones.

Keywords

• Plastic waste
• pollution
• reuse
• upcycling
• Mole National Park
• Pier Luigi Sacco, Humanities, IULM University, Milano, Italy