While Ghana generates 170,000 tonnes of e-waste every year, a quarter of which ends up in the Agbogbloshie landfill on the outskirts of Accra, the government is preparing to inaugurate an e-waste recycling centre near the capital.
The Ghanaian government will inaugurate a new e-waste recycling centre in Accra on 31 October. The facility, built on a one-hectare site, will have a temporary storage area, a recycling unit, a weighbridge, a guardhouse and a transformer. These facilities will allow for the recovery and resale of four types of e-waste, including cables, mixed batteries, thermoplastics and CRTs.
According to Kwaku Afriyie, Ghana’s Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the work launched in October 2018 is 65% complete. The plant built by Memphis Metropolitan is funded to the tune of €10 million (over 84 million Ghanaian cedis) with support from the German government.
The centre “aims to reduce the environmental impact of e-waste recycling activities in the country, ensure the transition of e-waste through proper and sound procedures, test a pricing or financing mechanism,” says Minister Kwaku Afriyie. The centre is a result of the Electronic and Hazardous Waste Control and Management Act passed in 2016 in Ghana. The initiative also aims to create at least 22,000 jobs for Ghana’s youth.
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“Through this plant, Ghana is poised to put an end to the growing e-pollution with the development of the digital world which is fast becoming a national security threat to most governments on the continent,” said Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the launch of the National Integrated E-Waste Management Programme in August 2018.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
