Fuelled by the accelerated pace of digitalization and the rise of a global middle class, the market for electrical and electronic equipment is expanding rapidly, and with it the production of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste). In Ghana, the vast majority of e-waste is managed under poor environmental, health and safety conditions. Open burning of cables and manual disassembly of lead-acid batteries are still widely used practices, causing significant environmental pollution and damage to human health.
In Ghana, an estimated 171,000 tons of e-waste was generated in 2011, with a mere 0.2% processed by formal e-waste recyclers. The remaining 99.98% was handled by an informal sector consisting of a widespread network of unlicensed collectors, intermediaries, scrap dealers and dismantlers specializing in the manual disassembly and trading of post-consumer electronics. A lack of proper environmental, health and safety safeguards among these actors results in massive environmental pollution and negatively affects the physical well-being of thousands of people. This project aims to improve the management of e-waste in Ghana to help address the many associated issues.
