Paper Bag Ink
Providing an innovative alternative to single use plastic bags
Paper Bag Ink is a marketing idea developed by the Chamber of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a think tank that develops and nurtures great ideas. As part of our decision to help to address the government’s plea to reduce the use of single-use plastics, Chamber of Entrepreneurship and Innovation developed this great idea to reduce the use of single plastics by replacing polythene bags typically used to wrap and pack produce and products with biodegradable paper bags
In Ghana, despite the fact that plastics do provide benefits to health, hygiene and quality of life, increased access and affordability to clean water, improved hygiene of agricultural products among others, the hazardous impacts that mismanaged plastics pose to the environment, human health, marine life and sustainable development cannot be overlooked.
Plastics have been embraced by manufacturers for packaging almost everything. A greater proportion of our foods, water, and everyday products are packaged in single-use plastics. Plastic bags are relatively cheap and readily available for such uses. For example a GHS 10 meal of ‘Kenkey’ uses on average 5-7 single-use plastics: 3 plastics to individually wrap 2 balls of ‘kenkey’ and fried fish; 1 plastic for the pepper sauce; one small black plastic to wrap everything; and a bigger nicely coloured carrier plastic bag to help carry the food home. Do the maths for other foods for breakfast, lunch and supper.
In our marketplaces, vendors gladly wrap items bought by their customers in plastic bags. One person could take about 20 different single-use plastic bags home after a day’s shopping. No wonder, all types of plastics including shopping bags, pure water plastic bags, plastic takeaway food packs, and water bottles are disposed off indiscriminately everywhere around us.
There are many Possible Solutions, which may include but are not limited to:
A change in attitude of the citizenry could make a big difference. As noted by panellists at a Plastic Dialogue organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Use of paper bags or cloth bags. Paper bags are 100% biodegradable, reusable, and recyclable.
Recycling. Through a number of processes, plastic waste is collected and converted back into useful products, instead of being simply disposed of.
Legislation. Laws could be enacted to completely ban or re-use single use plastics, like sachet water plastic bags, shopping bags and single-use water bottles.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). This includes regulations to make producers responsible for the impacts of plastics on the environment.
The Chamber of Entrepreneurship and Innovation has devised a unique service to distribute paper bags to shopping outlets, retailers, road side vendors and neighbourhood stores in Ghana for free. It is the hope that access to free paper bags will result in the reduction in dependence on single use plastic bags for wrapping and carrying products and produce.
In recent times, single use plastic bags have been the dominant way of wrapping and carrying items from shops. This although convenient is ultimately unsustainable in many ways. The plastic bags are hardly used more than once and then dumped, consequently polluting our environment, especially our water bodies.
The chamber of Entrepreneurship and innovation wishes to address this by providing plastic bags for free to ships and markets to reduce and eventually replace the use of single use plastic bag. This concept may seem impossible, but the Chamber has devised a way to o this sustainably over time. To do this, the Chamber of Entrepreneurship will
The paper bag industry growing but at snails pace. This must be corrected by the development of a local paper recycling industry that will provide the raw materials for paper bags. Although this is achievable, this make take a while to happen. In the meantime, the Chamber of Entrepreneurship will do its best to replace the paper bags with conventional methods and work o achieving the set goal.
To get this project off the ground, We seek to partner with organizations to provide Expertise, Funding, Logistics and Training to ensure that this laudable initiative is launched to provide the desired impact. Although this is focused on Ghana for now, the scalability of the idea provides room to expend and innovate to use our paper bags and the free distribution thereof as an innovative way of replacing single use plastics in Ghana, Africa and beyond.