Conceptualising Feasibility Studies for Selected E-waste Scrap Yards in Ghana

Over many years, Ghana emerged as one of the main destinations of e-waste exports, such as from European countries. The e-waste received is collected, sorted and dismantled and processed to recover usable components or materials. For example, e-waste is burnt to recover copper, thus creating sever impacts on the environment and the health, both of workers and surrounding societies. The e-waste activities concentrate on several waste clusters around the country such as the Ashaiman scrap yard in Accra, Tema, Koforidua, Kumasi and Tamale.

Various development cooperation initiatives have been launched, including the Ghana e-waste programme implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). These initiatives focus on addressing improving the conditions and practices of e-waste recycling. In order to support GIZ with expanding their activities over the country, adelphi assisted GIZ in elaborating a concept for feasibility studies on potential future technical support through the e-waste programme, considering already ongoing activities in selected areas/cities in Ghana. To this regard, the adelphi expert team built on its own experiences of e-waste management in Ghana under the European Union funded “E-MAGIN” project, implemented by adelphi and its partners from 2018 to 2021.