New waste bins hit Accra’s CBD as AMA and Duraplast team up to tackle sanitation challenge

A stretch of one of Accra’s busiest commercial corridors now has something it has long needed, proper places to put rubbish.

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly has begun installing new public waste bins along the Kinbu to CMB stretch in the Central Business District, following a donation of 20 bins by Duraplast on Tuesday, March 17. The initiative is part of the Assembly’s broader push to improve waste management in a city where inadequate disposal infrastructure has long been identified as one of the key drivers of urban sanitation challenges.

The Kinbu to CMB area was deliberately chosen for the first phase of the installation, a high-traffic zone serving traders, pedestrians, and roadside operators who collectively generate significant volumes of waste in their daily activities. Mayor Michael Kpakpo Allotey, speaking during the exercise, said the bins were strategically positioned to meet people where waste is actually being produced.

He assured the public that the Assembly would back the physical infrastructure with operational commitment, deploying sanitation workers and trucks on a daily basis to empty the bins and maintain cleanliness along the stretch.

But the Mayor also delivered a firm message about what the bins are not for. Household waste, he made clear, has no place in public street bins, and anyone found transporting refuse from their homes to dump in them will face arrest and prosecution.

“The bins are not meant for household waste,” Allotey warned, framing responsible usage as both a civic duty and a legal obligation.

He also extended a call to corporate organisations to follow Duraplast’s lead and partner with the Assembly in scaling up the initiative, recognising that government resources alone cannot address Accra’s sanitation challenges at the scale required.

Duraplast’s Executive Director, Ms. Mireille Hitti, used the donation occasion to articulate a philosophy that places corporate citizenship alongside commercial activity. For the company, she said, manufacturing in Ghana comes with a responsibility to contribute to the environment in which it operates.

“Sanitation is a major challenge in Accra, and proper waste disposal is essential for public health, environmental protection and civic pride,” she said, expressing confidence that the availability of well-placed bins would encourage more responsible behaviour among residents and businesses alike.

She commended the AMA’s leadership for its sanitation commitment and signalled that Duraplast remains open to supporting similar efforts in the future.

Twenty bins along one stretch of road will not transform Accra overnight. But as a visible, practical demonstration of what public-private collaboration on sanitation can look like, the installation at Kinbu to CMB offers a model worth building on, and a reminder that cleaner cities begin with giving people a proper place to dispose of their waste.