In September 2021, EdwardAsare.com broke the news of McKingtorch Africa and Yielding Accomplished African Women’s collaboration to scavenge plastic waste on the beaches of Accra towards an upcycling project. With the goal to construct a bus shelter from these materials, McKingtorch Africa has completed and recently unveiled the finished product.
Mckingtorch Africa is a registered social enterprise in the environmental sustainability and sanitation space with focus on recycling, upcycling, advocacy on environmental sanitation and plastic pollution, community and beach cleanups, mentoring and training for youth on creating solutions from waste, plastic waste art exhibitions, and sales of products and arts from plastic waste.
The bus shelter situated at Dzorwulu Junction, right in front of Fiesta Royale, is made from plastic gallons, water bottles, as well as flip flops (chalewote) collected from beaches and the street with funding from Geodrill Ghana Limited and support from Academic City University College. Leading up to this, the organisation installed Christmas decorations made from plastic waste all over Accra during the festive season.
Mckingtorch Africa has collected over 200,000 plastic waste bottles from homes, offices and the streets of Accra employed 3 people and engages over 200 volunteers in Ghana. Only being in existence for a little over four years, the organisation is making significant strides towards their goal of eradicating plastic waste.
In his speech at the launch, the CEO of Geodrill Ghana Limited, Mr. Dave Harper applauded Makafui Awuku and his Mckingtorch outfit for seeing out the bus shelter project successfully. He also went on to pledge GHS 70,000 to the organisation’s next project. Makafui Awuku, founder and CEO of McKingtorch Africa noted as well that they are determined to fabricate and install a lot more of these shelters across the country and on the African continent through the partnerships that they have.
