Captain planet vs. Captain Pollution: Ghana’s plastics, Congo’s papers

Decades back, one of the famed cartoons broadcast on national television was Captain Planet, CP. As aptly stated in the theme song, CP was a hero "going to take pollution down to zero."

It wasn't all that rosy, but as always he prevailed over arch rival Captain Pollution and his allies of degradation.

The captain's allies are the planeteers, a quintuplet that could only combine their powers to "summon" him to action - almost always to save the planet.

The signature tune which so much loved to hear play started as follows: Earth, fire, wind, water, heart: gooo planet, when your powers combine, I am Captain Planet...

No cartooning in here; this piece explores how the land of my birth (Ghana, my motherland) has serially positioned itself as a self pollutant whiles my fatherland – Republic of Congo, is fairly enforcing a plastic ban as much as are other countries across Africa – Kenya, Rwanda, Eritrea etc.

I gave a brief of the 'paper – plastic packaging' dichotomy in an earlier blog post which looked at 10 pointers that put Congo ahead of Ghana.

Under the heading Paper and foil packaging vs. Ghana’s rubber and rubber, I wrote as follows – Waakye (beans and rice cooked together) is one of the main foods in Ghana so let’s use it.

If you wanted to buy waakye in Congo, it will be put in a foil nicely wrapped and put in a brown or white paper envelope. For those that buy in multiples, you will get a cloth bag for your load. Mind you waakye no dey Congo.

Our waakye equivalent is called manioc - cassava-based delicacy cooked and eaten like Ga kenkey - with grounded pepper, mayonnaise, chicken or fish plus ketchup. Chai!

Whereas in Ghana, the waakye can be in a plain olonka rubber with pepper and stew. Another rubber for macaroni and gari. All put in a black polythene then in a more colourful one. Even entering Congo with polythene, they’ll seize it, smuggle in but thy shall not be caught.

Mind you, Congo has room for some category of plastics

Make no mistake, Congo makes room for plastics. The degradable type which is sold in top supermarkets, my office uses them for rubbish collection. Where market women in Ghana will stack up polythene, in Congo it's all about brown paper envelopes and old European or Asian newspapers.

Where the marts and supermarkets will pull out branded polythene bags, well here; you get as many brown envelopes as your purchase can contain. If not, but a cotton bag for your items.

I have seen clogged gutters but not clogged because of plastics. Then again people smuggle in this same banned plastics – I know a friend who caused me so to do. The smuggled rubbers which is referred to in Ghana as 'olonka' rubber are used to tie iced water – l'eau glacier, they call it.

I have seen women who vend this iced-water bolt to go hide their water whenever they see a police vehicle approaching. That is the extent to which enforcement has gone down.

The plastics chaos in Ghana is so basic, so cheap it is nothing but terrifyingly worrying. Even buying three bags of sachet water could as well guarantee you a black polythene bag.

Give and take, every Ghanaian house would have one type of plastic packaging or the other. Flip that over, Congolese households I have seen operate with zero plastic packaging.

In all of this, knowing that the politicians will always play politics with the situation, law enforcement agencies look on helplessly and citizens, wait for the next plastics ban promise – and the countdown to the failure to implement.

The world has come to the conclusion that these plastics cause more harm than good and needs to be drastically regulated but over in Ghana, we are still wallowing, choking on these plastics from the politician to the environmental agencies and the ordinary citizens. God bless Ghana.

7 Rabi'ul Aw'wal 1440 = 15 November 2018, Thursday

LYRICS: Captain Planet Theme Track

Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!
Go planet! By your powers combined I am Captain Planet!

Captain Planet, he's our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
He's our powers magnified,
And he's fighting on the planet side

Captain Planet, he's our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
Gonna help him put us under,
Bad guys who like to loot and plunder

"You'll pay for this Captain Planet!"

(chanting)
We're the planeteers,
You can be one too!
'Cause saving our planet is the thing to do,
Looting and polluting is not the way,
Hear what Captain Planet has to say:

"THE POWER IS YOURS!!"