Ghanaian company recycles e-waste

E-waste also contains hazardous substances like lead, cadmium, mercury and polybrominated flame retardants.

A Ghanaian company has started the recycling of obsolete electronics equipment to export for further processing abroad.

The company, City Waste Management Company Ltd., started the process Monday November 2, 2009.

The Technical Director of the company, Mr. Jurgen Meinel told a forum on electronics waste in Accra that the company would be doing separation of the parts to be exported to Europe for further processing.

Used electronics parts contain precious metals like gold, silver and copper, but the technology for processing these is not available in Ghana.

Ghana has been identified as a dumping ground for old electronics items like computers, sound systems, phones, fridges and air conditioners from Europe and America.

The country's lack of policy and resources to handle the situation makes it even harder. There are also the problems of locally generated e-waste since most of the electronics equipment that come into the country are already old.

Meanwhile, e-waste also contains hazardous substances like lead, cadmium, mercury and polybrominated flame retardants.