There are a million things to be done before Ghana can even begin to have a semblance of being a clean nation, but whether this is the right starting point can only be judged by posterity.

Ghana was recently adjudged the 7th dirtiest nation in the world, and a lot of that is down to non biodegradable, plastic materials that litter everywhere you pass, in addition to other less savoury forms of waste. After a promise to consider this policy, this government has set a timetable for implementation.

The Minister of Environment, Innovation Science and Technology, Mahama Ayariga, announced the impending ban, tentatively set for the 1st of November, 2015.

And the ban is in stages, beginning with plastic materials less than 20microns. These refer to the light white plastic rubbers used to package commodities like gari, sugar, and hausa koko.

“We have placed a ban on up to 20 microns. Nobody can manufacture plastic products of below 20 microns,” the Minister stated, per myjoyonline.

“The ones that they put Gari, kulikuli, those products – the plain, transparent ones – you see that they are so light and when the wind blows they float, it’s because they have very low microns and they are so light so managing it is so difficult so we need to increase the micron level.”

He further stated: “Every plastic that is produced for packaging, you have to put a biodegradable material in it so that the plastic that would be produced would be biodegradable.”

The minister also announced, that “after 90 days no plastic should be in the market unless it is biodegradable.”

President Mahama recently said Ghana might be going the Rwanda way and ban all plastic materials, and it seems it might be coming to fruition soon.

With anything done in Ghana though, expect implementation to fall far short of what is supposed to be done.