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

84
August 2010
5 Final conclusions <strong>and</strong> recommendations
<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
The impacts of the currently practiced e-waste recycling on human health <strong>and</strong> the environment
are significant <strong>and</strong> call for urgent action. The currently practiced informal e-waste
recycling does not only lead to severe local pollution <strong>and</strong> negative health impacts for the
people engaged in this sector, it also contributes to various local <strong>and</strong> global environmental
problems such as the emissions of heavy metals <strong>and</strong> persistent organic pollutants, global
warming <strong>and</strong> ozone depletion. In order to solve these problems, business <strong>and</strong> policy
approaches must be launched <strong>and</strong> synchronised to address the various problems <strong>and</strong> rootcauses
of the current situation. The following chapter proposes principles <strong>and</strong> activities that
should be endorsed <strong>and</strong> implemented by the government, the Ghanaian <strong>and</strong> international
recycling industry <strong>and</strong> international donors aiming to support Ghana in its efforts to solve the
e-waste problem.
5.1 General recommendation to policy-makers <strong>and</strong> the Ghanaian recycling
industry
Incorporate the informal sector in future e-waste strategies
The informal sector is a key player in e-waste recycling in Ghana. It is already very active in
the collection <strong>and</strong> pre-processing stage. Efficiency is already high in house-to-house
collection of e-waste <strong>and</strong> the recovery of steel <strong>and</strong> aluminium. The informal collection <strong>and</strong>
recycling sector provides employment for approximately 6,300 to 9,600 people countrywide,
mostly to the people originating from the <strong>economic</strong>ally disadvantaged northern parts of the
countries. The informal sector activities – despite its adverse impacts on human health <strong>and</strong>
the environment – therefore provide both, a nucleus to develop a more advanced recycling
industry, <strong>and</strong> important income opportunities for poor people. Any strategy addressing the
Ghanaian e-waste management should therefore carefully consider the possible roles of the
informal sector before establishing a parallel system in competition to the informal recyclers.
In particular, it is recommended that those people that are currently engaged in informal ewaste
collection <strong>and</strong> pre-processing become an officially acknowledged part of the recycling
chain.
Deploy manual labour for pre-processing
The comparison between the presently applied recycling techniques in Ghana <strong>and</strong> the
technologies applied in European countries reveals that European solutions are only partially
applicable in the Ghanaian context. Especially pre-processing machinery developed <strong>and</strong>
applied in Europe is often optimised to reduce labour costs rather then maximising resource
efficiency. Under the socio-<strong>economic</strong> conditions of Ghana, recycling can make use of much
more manual labour, which can be beneficial in <strong>economic</strong>, environmental <strong>and</strong> social terms.
Although investments into machinery parks often appear to be attractive solutions, this is not
necessarily the case in e-waste management in Ghana. Although some types of machinery