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

<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
August 2010
like CFC-recovery units for refrigerators <strong>and</strong> air conditioners, fume hoods for CRT-treatment
<strong>and</strong> electric or pneumatic tools for dismantling are required to improve e-waste recycling,
large scale shredder <strong>and</strong> mechanical sorting facilities are counterproductive <strong>and</strong> would lead
to job losses. Therefore, any approach to improve e-waste recycling in Ghana should make
use of the abundant labour force instead of deploying expensive shredding <strong>and</strong> sorting
machinery.
Support <strong>and</strong> maintain international recycling co-operations
The improvement potential described in chapter 4 mostly requires international recycling cooperations.
Although there are many recycling steps that can be carried out within Ghana,
certain refinery processes – especially those for precious metals – need to be carried out in
high-tech-facilities that are only available in very few countries. As these facilities require
investments of several billion US$ <strong>and</strong> waste volumes, much larger than those available in
Ghana <strong>and</strong> its neighbouring countries, it is currently not a realistic option to establish such a
facility in Ghana. It is therefore recommended that Ghanaian recyclers interlink with international
recycling companies <strong>and</strong> networks to develop market outlets for their pre-processed ewaste.
Focus on high quality recycling products
Ghanaian recyclers have remarkable opportunities in the pre-processing phase of electronic
products such as computers, DVD-players <strong>and</strong> hi-fi-systems. Here, recycling outputs could
achieve market prices that are beyond the average unit prices achieved by European preprocessors.
High qualities can be achieved by thorough deep dismantling <strong>and</strong> sorting of
these products. Ghanaian e-waste recyclers should focus on these quality aspects to occupy
this niche market.
Develop regulative framework
A key problem of Ghanaian e-waste recycling is cherry-picking. Fractions with high material
value are recovered <strong>and</strong> sold, while hazardous fractions with low material value such as
CRT-glass <strong>and</strong> plastics containing brominated flame retardants are dumped or burned
uncontrolled. Even with implementing international recycling co-operations in the field of
precious metals recovery, the problem of cherry-picking is not automatically solved. For
recyclers, a sound end-of-life management of hazardous fractions will always be more costly
than uncontrolled dumping or burning. Even if cost-efficient solutions like co-incineration of
plastic in cement kilns can be identified, this would still imply additional transport costs for
recyclers. Therefore, environmentally sound e-waste recycling is dependent on a sound
regulatory framework that includes the obligation to care for all e-waste fractions. Naturally,
such regulatory framework also needs stringent implementation <strong>and</strong> regular inspections.
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