The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), Ophelia Mensah Hayford, on Friday, October 25, 2024, commissioned an e-waste hand-over center in Accra.

Located at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), the center is designed to collect and manage electrical and electronic waste in an environmentally sustainable manner.

The move also aims to prevent the indiscriminate disposal of e-waste, which poses significant environmental and health risks.

Ophelia Mensah Hayford, which delivering her speech said, "The commissioning of this facility marks a reflection of the success of the e-waste project, which has already demonstrated measurable success, including the safe collection of over 476.88 tones of e-waste cables, 37.03 tonnes of mixed batteries, 31.83 tonnes of thermoplastics, and 87.00 sets of Cathode Ray Televisions (CRT), which ordinarily would have been subjected to open burning to pollute the environment or left lying in the open environment."

"This facility is more than just a storage center or collection point for e-waste; it also symbolizes our commitment to protecting both our environment and public health. It will also facilitate the process of recycling in line with global best practices," she stated.

The minister noted that the German Government, through KfW, in 2017, signed a separate financing agreement with the Government of Ghana, through the MESTI, to support the sustainable management of electronic waste to reduce the effects of environmental pollution and health risks.

Over 450 green jobs have been created, while over 200 scrap dealers have been trained on how to handle e-waste.

The minister said the government remains committed to building national capacity, increasing the collection of e-waste, promoting formal recycling systems, and working with key stakeholders to achieve a sustainable solution to Ghana's e-waste challenges.

Background

The importation of slightly used Electrical and Electronic Equipment and the arrival of End-of-Life Electrical and Electronic Equipment in large quantities inundated Ghana, creating a menace for the country. Consequently, e-waste management became a problem in Ghana.

The epicenter of this obnoxious dumping of e-waste was the Agbogbloshie enclave in Accra, where scrap dealers concentrated their business and polluted the environment at an alarming rate.

Among other things, the informal actors in the e-waste value chain used unconventional, crude methods such as burning and acid leaching to extract valuable metals from e-waste materials.

The e-waste generated in the wake of the recovery of valuable metals is discarded irresponsibly – the materials litter the environment and water bodies – creating environmental hazards as well as putting human health at risk, and the mix of these problems attracted negative media attention.

Consequently, the government of Ghana in 2016 passed Act 917 to deal with the issue of e-waste management.

Following the passage of the Act, Ghana, in bilateral collaboration with the Federal Republic of Germany through BMZ and implemented by KfW, started the implementation of Recycling and Disposal of Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment in an environmentally sound manner.

The project partners have earmarked 20 million Euros for the implementation of the project, and the programme will run until 2026 to create greener jobs for Ghanaians and also to ensure the management of e-waste in an environmentally safe and sound way.

This project started in 2018 and aims to minimize negative environmental and human health impacts from improper management of electronic wastes.

It also aims to transition the most polluting e-waste recovery activities from the informal sector to the formal sector without removing jobs from the lowest income group.

SA

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