Achimota Waste Transfer Station to ease garbage disposal - Yuksel Unal

Zoomlion Ghana Limited and its subsidiary companies have commissioned an ultra-modern Waste Tranfer Station on Thursday, to serve residents of Achimota easy access to collecting and disposing of garbage.

The Achimota waste transfer station is the third after Teshie and Kokomlemle that have been built by Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

Visual and noise pollution shall be reduced by the way of using solid waste transfer station from waste collection vehicles, Yuksel Unal, Managing Director of Zoompak has said.

He added that, the transfer station innovation among other waste management solutions being provided by the Zoomlion Group are geared towards making the city clean.

Mr Unal expressed his sincerest gratitude to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, the Mayor of Accra, and other Environmental Sanitation Partners for their support toward the project.

Here is the statement below:

SPEECH BY MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ZOOMPAK ON THE OCCASION OF THE
COMMISSIONING OF ACHIMOTA WASTE TRANSFER STATION

Today marks a great milestone in the waste management sector of Ghana as the Zoomlion Group of Companies brings another innovation in the management of solid waste by constructing this ultra-modern Waste Transfer Station to serve residents of Achimota and its environs.

The commissioning of the Achimota waste transfer station today, brings to three the total number of waste transfers stations which have been constructed by Zoomlion Ghana Limited since 2014. These are sited at Teshie, Kokomlemle and now Achimota.

The long hours spent in traffic to dispose waste at landfill sites which are located far from the city continue to hinder efforts by waste management companies to efficiently transport waste from point of generation to final disposal sites. The impact of this challenge has been glaring with spillover and unsanitary sites in parts of the city.

This environmentally friendly facility will serve as a temporary site for municipal solid waste to improve collection of waste from households in Achimota and its surrounding communities.

The facility has three compaction trailers of which one can receive an average of 2,000 tons of waste, which means that each trailer can absorb about ten waste compaction trucks making about 100 waste trucks dumping at our facility in a day. This facility has a weighing bridge with an automated system to calculate the weight of waste dumped by each truck. Odor from the plant is mitigated by the air tight and leakage proof nature of the transfer trailers.

The Economic benefits of waste transfer stations are enormous. They provide a reduced cost of fuel, extends the useful life of vehicle tyres, reduce vehicle maintenance cost, increase in efficiency of personnel operations among others which are as a result of shorter distances to final disposal sites.

Zoomlion Ghana Limited and its subsidiary companies- Accra Compost and Recycling Plant, Universal Plastic Products and Recycling, Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited, Zoomlion Domestic and Zoompak have provided an integrated waste management solution where waste collected are recycled into compost, waste bins, bin liners and other useful products.

Zoomlion Ghana Limited since its inception in 2006 has consistently introduced modern technologies in waste management. The company which initially started with a manual tricycle waste collection system has evolved over the years through its research, innovation and development unit to introduce the waste transfer station.

The transfer station innovation among other waste management solutions being provided by the Zoomlion Group is geared towards making our city clean.

Both Teshie and Achimota solid waste transfer station are the first and only solid waste transfer stations in Africa constructed with the European standards which comes with a Medical waste disposal facility. To ensure effective usage of the facilities, we have organized seminars and conferences about the disposal of medical waste in Ghana. We have also worked together with United Nations Development Programme about medical waste treatment and disposal.

The Solid Waste Transfer station we are commissioning today has a capacity of 2,000 Tones transfer capacity daily. Solid waste offload platform has been created with five (5) bunkers. Four (4) of them are for waste trucks and one (1) is for tricycles. The station has been equipped with the highest full automation technology in the world.

Some of the benefits of solid waste transfer stations for the region and environments are:

1. With Solid waste transfer stations, less number of waste collection vehicle shall run the waste collecting operation, by the way carbonmonoxyde emission rate shall be reduced.

2. With leakage-proof semitrailers, leachate shall not be spilled on the road and street.

3. With the solid waste transfer stations, waste collection shall be disciplined, thus environment pollution shall be reduced and this way malaria, cholera and the other diseases shall be minimized.

4. Visual and noise pollution shall be reduced by the way of using solid waste transfer station from waste collection vehicles.

I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, the Mayor of Accra, and other Environmental Sanitation Partners for your support for this project. We pledge our commitment and dedication for the effective running of the facility to give a boost to the President’s vision of making Ghana the Cleanest City in Africa.

We also wish to express our appreciation to all the people who have contributed to the establishment of Achimota Zoompak Solid Waste Transfer Station project especially to all the staff of Campak and Jospong Group of Companies.

Thank you