GHANA: Electronic waste recycling centre to be inaugurated in October 2022

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.

 “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  | https://www.afrik21.africa/