Sheku Bangura, the Executive Director of the Advocacy Network Against Irregular Migration and the Chief Pan African Ambassador of the World Against Single-Used of Plastic (WASUP) has started a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of single-use plastic, which he said continues to exist in Sierra Leone and pose a serious threat to people, animals, and the environment.
On Thursday, April 19, 2022, WASUP officially launched the awareness campaign at a press conference held at their Freetown headquarters, 3 Bai-Bureh Road – Ferry Junction.
News reporters, a few local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and several international partners via zoom meeting attended and participated in the event.
Wurie Mamadu Tamba Barrie, Pan African Secretary and Communications Lead provided background information on WASUP, stating that it is a British organization that was formed by Professor Abdul Rashid Gatrad OBE in 2017 and debuted on January 23, 2019, at Mano Hospital.
Aside from meetings, animation productions, posters, speeches, community cleanups, tree planting, and other activities, he continued, WASUP is about teaching and raising awareness.
He stated that Africa would use, among other things, the following to increase awareness in all spheres of society, including schools, businesses, and places of worship: talks, events, and social media; teaching children about the dangers of plastic and recycling in schools; litter-picking in the streets and in waterways by all spheres of society; and applying pressure on manufacturers and supply chains to use less plastic in their packaging.
According to him, platforms have been established for 22 African nations, including those in Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya, Zambia, Algena, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo Brazaville, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, and Senegal.
According to Sheku Bangura, the Chief Pan African Ambassador of WASUP, they would introduce WASUP Africa through letters to MDAs, embassies, donors, resource mobilization, awareness- and education-raising, policy advocacy, and conversation.
He predicted that by 2025 the amount of plastic in the ocean would double and that by 2050 it would weigh 500 times as much as fish.
Over 300 million tons of plastic are manufactured worldwide each year, with half of that amount is single-use plastics, according to the Chief Pan African Ambassador.
“Plastics only gradually disintegrate into microplastics, which are progressively smaller fragments of plastic. These tiny plastic particles are very difficult to remove and present serious harm to wildlife. Every plastic item ever produced is still present on Earth today, according to him.
The four guiding principles of their campaign, according to him, are to use less single-use plastic, reuse more reusable plastic, refuse to use single-use plastics, and recycle plastic that can be recycled.
He implied that, in addition to killing millions of marine animals and seabirds annually, microplastics in the stomachs of animals are also contaminating seafood, which humans have relied on for thousands of years. He confirmed that plastic addiction had detrimental effects on the environment.