Green Nets

Submitted by Mike Mayo

Green Nets is the name of my startup project where my students and I make soccer nets out of recycled material. Our material of choice is water sachets. I thought up the idea at the Peace Corps All Volunteer Conference. At the conference, every PCV in Ghana comes together to share ideas and help each other with projects they are working on. After seeing the water sachet hammock created by another PCV, I realized that I could make something using the same method but much bigger: a football (soccer) net. Since then I have been collecting sachets and making nets.

There are two obvious benefits of this project. The first is it helps clean up the environment by collecting and reusing the plastic sachets that are typically discarded on the ground. You need at least 3500 sachets for one net. Even though that seems like a lot, if you can get your community and the surrounding communities involved the sachets really start to pile up. The second is it provides soccer nets for villages throughout Ghana.

If Green Nets becomes as popular as I hope it will, there is the potential to start selling the nets and creating job opportunities for the local villagers. There is no mechanical way to make the nets so you would need to pay the men and women of the village to weave the nets together. You don’t have to stop at soccer nets. You can show people how to make hammocks (Ghanaians love taking a midday nap and a hammock is much more comfortable than a bench), and volleyball nets. This weekend I even made a kite using water sachets, straws, some thread and a needle. The primary school students loved it! This project is only limited by your imagination.
The most important aspect of this project is its feasibility and sustainability. All you need to make a soccer net out of water sachets is a pair of scissors, plenty of sachets, and some free time. “But Mike,” you might say, “you said you need at least 3500 satchets that is 3,500,000 cedi (old currency), how can I afford that on my Peace Corps stipend?!” My answer for you: you don’t need to buy the sachets, you gotta be a good PCV and pick’em up off the ground! As for scissors they can be purchased at your local Melcom’s at a reasonable cost. In terms of sustainability, as long as Ghanaians keep drinking water out of sachets, PCVs will be making things out of them.

Recently I have partnered with GreenIsEasyGhana, an environmental organization trying to clean up Ghana and supporting small projects they feel can make a difference. They will be supporting my project by providing funds that will help me buy new quality scissors and recycling containers that I will place around mine and the surrounding communities. I will also provide them with pictures and videos that they will post on their website to promote the recycling of water satchets and show the process of making the nets.

To sum up I think this is a great project for everyone to take up. It is easy to learn and the communities love the nets. I will be trying to host an IST in Cape Coast sometime in the future to not only teach the net making techniques, but also to show Cape Coast the possibilities of recycling their massive amount of water sachet waste.