Sustainable community recycling banks for locals
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$4,060
A £3,000 seed grant to support Ernest Nartey-Tetteh, founder of EazyWaste, as he scales community-run recycling banks across Ghana. These banks turn plastic packaging into high-quality pellets, keeping waste local and handled by youth, purely powered by locally made machinery and community energy.
- Region 🇬🇭 Ghana
- Sector 🌍 Climate
- Stage Scaling
Ernest launched EazyWaste in 2017 after completing a degree in Health Administration and discovering how harmful plastic waste was to public health. The idea grew from his grandfather’s informal recycling work and the first crusher he used to collect plastic waste. Ernest saw how difficult it was for waste pickers to reach recycling centres and how transport costs destroyed their earnings. He shifted the model so recycling moved into the community rather than the other way around.
Local youth gather plastic waste at one of seven pick‑up points each week and get paid by the kilo, with cleaner, sorted plastic earning more. The material is delivered to the recycling site, sorted, cleaned, crushed and turned into usable pellets. Although the site processes about 4 tons per month, it has capacity for 4 tons per day, meaning one centre could process over 1,000 tons per year when fully operational.
Why this matters
Ghana imports over 2.58 million metric tonnes of raw plastic each year and more than 73 percent ends up as waste in landfills or the environment. Only a tiny fraction is recycled, contributing to pollution, flooding and public health risks . EazyWaste’s model tackles these issues by providing a sustainable and scalable solution that benefits communities, reduces waste and creates economic opportunity.
How the grant helps
This grant funds a vehicle to collect and transport plastic more reliably since EazyWaste currently depends on hired trucks. With its own transportation, EazyWaste can collect from more communities at lower cost, increasing volume and moving closer to full capacity.
With improved transport, EazyWaste can collect more plastic from more communities, generating greater environmental impact and deeper community engagement. The model trains local youth in technical and business skills, increases incomes for community members, reduces plastic in the environment, and builds a foundation for scalable transformation.
Updates
From the field
Eazywaste adds two more (Kwasikuma and Akraman) communities to their recycling initiative.
Posted 5 Apr 2022
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Using our funding Eazywaste has continued to expand its community outreach program and has recently expanded into two more communities: Kwasikuma and Akraman.
Progress update from Ernest ...
We are now closer to the end-users of our raw materials, informal sector aggregators of plastic waste and plastic waste pickers in Kwasikuma and Akraman communities. We've given them unique access to recycling whilst educating them on the need to recycle and its benefits. As a result, we increased our plastic recovery and production in February by 1,680 kilograms.
... and a message from the residents of Kwasikuma and Akraman communities:
"We now always know recycling is accessible right at our doorstep. This makes us feel we are part of the greater good, and it encourages us to put plastic waste in the right place because we know it will be recovered and recycled."
Funds have been safely received.
Posted 2 Feb 2022
We've received word from Ernest that the allocated capital has safely been received in Ghana 🇬🇭.
Here's a message from Ernest:
Eazywaste team acknowledge receipt of £3,000 funding received from Kwanda, In support of our mission to provide accessible sustainable Community recycling banks. We will constantly be in touch to provide the villagers and the whole Kwanda community an update on our journey.
I'll forward any updates from Ghana as they arrive!