Ministry of Environment Commissions Electronic Waste Hand-Over Centre
An electronic waste Hand Over Centre (HOC), meant to serve as a storage or collection point of e-waste products has been inaugurated in Accra.
Apart from serving as a storage or collection point, the HOC will help facilitate the recycling process of e-waste products in line with global best practices.
The e-waste HOC is part of the “Recycling and Disposal of Electronic and Electrical Equipment in an Environmentally Sound Way” project, initiated by the government through the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) in partnership with the German Government, through KfW.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mrs Ophelia Mensah Hayford, said the establishment of the HOC was a testament to the government’s commitment to both the environment and public health.
She noted that the facility marked the reflection of the achievements of the e-waste project, which included the safe collection of over 476.88 tons of e-waste cables, 37.03 tons of mixed batteries, 31.83 tons of thermoplastics and 87.00 sets of Cathode Ray Televisions (CRT).
Mrs Hayford indicated that the partnership with various stakeholders such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs), and the e-waste fund, had resulted in a system that incentivised safe disposal of e-waste, created over 450 green jobs and trained more than 200 scrap dealers in the safe handling of e-waste.
“It is our firm conviction that this initiative will strengthen the capacity of local e-waste handlers to properly manage electronic waste in ways that reduce the associated risks and increase value recovery,” Mrs Hayford added.
She expressed gratitude to relevant stakeholders, including scrap dealers for their commitment and cooperation in ensuring that the e-waste project remained a success.
In 2016, the government passed Act 917 to deal with the issue of e-waste after local and international media reports on the use of unconventional, crude methods such as burning and acid leaching to extract valuable metals from e-waste materials at Agbogbloshie and its health risk on the citizenry.
The government in collaboration with the Federal Republic of Germany through BMZ and KFW started the implementation of the ‘Recycling and Disposal of Electronic and Electrical Equipment in an Environmentally Sound Way’ project, expected to end next year.
An amount of €20 million was earmarked for the project which had three components, namely, the supply side; focusing on the incentive collection of e-waste, Hand Over Centre, focusing on the storage of e-waste and the demand side, focusing on the tendering and recycling of e-waste in an environmentally sound manner.
