From e-waste to opportunity: How Ghana is rethinking electronic waste

E-waste Recycling  |  2026-11-03 01:21:00   |   By

All these discarded devices add to a growing global waste problem. A record 62 million tons of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2022, an 82% increase from 2010, according to the UN. The amount is expected to reach 82 million tons a year by 2030.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The battery no longer lasts until the evening, so you buy a new mobile phone, complete with new charging cable and headphones.

Maybe you also need to replace the electric toothbrush or the blender, and haven't you been looking for a more energy-efficient washing machine?

All these discarded devices add to a growing global waste problem. A record 62 million tons of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2022, an 82% increase from 2010, according to the UN. The amount is expected to reach 82 million tons a year by 2030.

Yet only 22.3% of e-waste generated in 2022 was officially collected and properly recycled, according to the UN's 2024 Global E-waste Monitor (GEM).

The report is published only every few years, making the 2024 edition just the fourth ever produced.

Electronic devices contain valuable raw materials such as copper, aluminium and gold, but much of that material is lost when discarded devices are not properly collected and recycled.

The report estimates that $62 billion worth of recoverable natural resources was left unaccounted for in 2022, while improper handling of e-waste poses increased pollution risks for communities.

The problem is also reflected in national policies. Of the 81 countries with e-waste regulations, only 48 had national collection targets, according to the report. That fell short of a previous goal of having 50% of countries - 97 at the time - set collection targets by 2023.

Some of this electronic waste ends up in Africa illegally, for example as supposedly functional second-hand goods.

Yet even broken devices can still fetch money: they are repaired, used as a source of spare parts or dismantled for their raw materials.

How closely business and environmental destruction are intertwined is evident in Ghana's capital, Accra.

The scrap yard as a source of raw materials

In 2013, two environmental organizations ranked Agbogbloshie in Accra among the 10 most polluted places in the world.

Images of young men burning cables to extract the copper and resell it were seen around the world. In 2021, the authorities cleared the scrap heap in the Old Fadama district, but the traders simply moved elsewhere – and are now returning.

According to estimates, tens of thousands of people in Accra make a living, either directly or indirectly, from processing old electronics.

Just a few minutes from the centre of this metropolis of over a million people, mountains of rubbish, market stalls and traders' booths stretch out beneath corrugated iron roofs and faded parasols along a filthy lagoon.

Standing at the entrance to an alleyway is Yakubu Adam, a gaunt 53-year-old wearing a yellow Borussia Dortmund shirt. His suppliers go from door to door in Accra, buying up what others no longer need. He checks the goods and resells whatever still works.

A few metres away, a cheerful man who introduces himself as Fuseni is tinkering with semiconductor components in a cramped shed full of cables.

He repairs up to 20 items a day, for the equivalent of around $3.30 each. Larger orders are also handled here: Alaiku Abdul Razak, with around 20 employees, manufactures spare parts for machinery. Customers send him the sketches via WhatsApp.

Extracting copper without burning cables

'Our thinking has always been around the polluting aspect of what they are doing, but we always forget about the value creation that they bring to us,' says Vincent Kyere, project manager for electronic waste at the Ghanaian Environment Ministry.

The images from Agbogbloshie have shaped the international perception of Ghana's e-waste industry.

Meanwhile, officials in Accra are also recognizing the potential of the extensive network of collectors, traders and craftspeople who return discarded appliances and valuable raw materials to the economic cycle.

The aim is for traders to retain their source of income without having to burn cables or dispose of hazardous substances in an uncontrolled manner.

The local company GreenAd demonstrates how this can be put into practice. Instead of burning the insulation off old cables, it is removed mechanically there.

Collectors deliver cables and are paid according to price lists based on the raw materials they contain. GreenAd has already accepted more than 900 tons of cable, says project manager Bennett Akuffo.

Increasingly, new goods from Asia are ending up directly in his recycling facility due to quality defects.

But new processes are not catching on simply because they are safer.

'The truth of the matter is this: it has got to do with money,' says Innocent Turkson, chairman of a scrap dealers' association in the port city of Tema. In the past, his staff would simply smash some items with a hammer.

Today, they have to sort them more carefully, which costs more time and requires additional staff. They also fear a drop in prices if state-supported buyers dictate the terms to them.

Old turned new

Nana Yaw Konadu demonstrates how money can be made from discarded electronics even beyond the traditional scrap trade.

'The last thing an electronics recycling company should do is recycle,' says the entrepreneur. He prioritizes repair and reuse before the devices are dismantled.

In a workshop at his company, Electro Recycling Ghana, men and women are assembling televisions from second-hand Dell computer monitors supplied by a German partner company.

The sets cost just under $33, says Konadu. For many of his customers, a new set would be virtually unaffordable.

Courtesy: www.yahoo.com