Socio-economic assessment and feasibility study on - Öko-Institut eV

80
August 2010
<strong>Socio</strong>-<strong>economic</strong> <strong>assessment</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>feasibility</strong> <strong>study</strong>
on sustainable e-waste management in Ghana
to a representative of NARWOA, the National Refrigerator <strong>and</strong> Air-Conditioning
Workshop Owners Association (UNDP 2009c). Generally, it seems unlikely that
consumers <strong>and</strong> businesses can be convinced to routinely deliver their waste
refrigerators to collection points themselves. It seems more likely that the informal
sector will continue collecting refrigerators <strong>and</strong> will offer the service of delivering old
<strong>and</strong> obsolete refrigerators to the dedicated collection points <strong>and</strong> to h<strong>and</strong>le all
administrative procedures. As this does not have any implications for the success of
the project – <strong>and</strong> additionally helps to secure many low-skilled jobs in waste collection
– such informal sector engagement should be tolerated. In particular, it should be
tolerated that individuals with no registered residential address <strong>and</strong> telephone number
can acquire coupons by h<strong>and</strong>ing in old <strong>and</strong> obsolete refrigerators. Additionally, no limit
for the number of devices <strong>and</strong> coupons per person should be applied.
� In order to prove an effective instrument to channel refrigerators away from the
currently practiced informal recycling, the coupons given out for each obsolete
refrigerator must have a monetary value that is clearly above the refrigerator’s net
material value (see Table 12). If this is not the case, refrigerators will continue to be
recycled with the presently applied technologies.
� In order to ensure sound transport <strong>and</strong> h<strong>and</strong>ling of refrigerators, full-value coupons
should only be granted for devices that arrive with intact cooling circuit. For devices
with leakages or missing components, only coupons with a minor monetary value
should be distributed. Nevertheless, these devices should not be rejected as they
mostly still contain significant amounts of CFCs in the foams.
� The dismantling of refrigerators should – as far as possible – make use of manual
labour <strong>and</strong> avoid the use of mechanical shredding <strong>and</strong> sorting machinery. Although
machinery is necessary for step 1 <strong>and</strong> step 2 CFC-recovery, all other process steps,
including the dismantling <strong>and</strong> sorting of the metal <strong>and</strong> plastic fractions should be
carried out manually. This measure is aimed to maximise the project’s job creation.
� In order to ensure the project’s acceptance in the current refurbishing <strong>and</strong> recycling
industries <strong>and</strong> to provide a nucleus for improved recycling businesses, it is recommended
to install the CFC-recovery <strong>and</strong> destruction facilities within or close to the
current refurbishing or recycling clusters. Drawing from the findings of the socio<strong>economic</strong>
survey <strong>and</strong> considering experiences from other economies, these clusters do
have significant development potentials, which could be stimulated by such pilot
projects. In particular, the CFC-recovery <strong>and</strong> destruction facilities should make use of
the present labour force to create decent employment <strong>and</strong> to upgrade skills <strong>and</strong>
knowledge. Furthermore, some non-hazardous process steps like the dismantling of
steel <strong>and</strong> copper parts could be outsourced to existing informal recycling enterprises.
� Final solutions for foams <strong>and</strong> hazardous refrigerator components (e.g. mercury
switches, PCB-capacitors) must be identified <strong>and</strong> implemented. This could also include