STAKEHOLDERS DIALOGUE ON ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC WASTE MANAGEMENT (E-WASTE)

Caritas Ghana, per its mission to collaborate with State and private actors in the e-waste management industry to promote a clean, healthy and safe environment in order to enhance the quality of our human living conditions, did organize a roundtable stakeholders dialogue session at one of the conference halls at Assemblies of God’s Head Office within Osu R.E, on Thursday, June 2, 2022, between the hours of 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. This was a joint activity with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Besides MESTI and EPA, a research institution, representatives from other State and public institutions, civil/faith-based societies, the media and the recycling industry players were invited to purposely discuss the challenges confronting the e-waste management and to design or offer possible solutions. These were Mountain Research Institute (MRI), EWASTE Fund, PIU-MESTI, FAITH in Ghana Alliance, Caritas Accra, Catholic Standard, City Waste Recycling and E-Waste Round Table Association (EWROTA). The Stakeholders Dialogue was sponsored by our development partner, the German development agency (GIZ).

In his opening remark, Mr. Georg Kerkloh, the Head of the Social Impact Investment unit of Caritas Ghana, highlighted on the growing prosperity and population growth in Ghana which have contributed to an increased demand for electrical and electronic equipment in the country, and admitted that the changing consumption patterns of persons have resulted in classifying Ghana as being one of the main importers of used electrical and electronic equipment worldwide.

He continued, though desiring to bridge the digital gap with developed countries, the importation is contributing to the increase in the volumes of waste of electrical and electronic equipment –WEEE (e-waste) in the country, posing threats to both the environment and human health and safety because of the improper handling of the hazardous fractions when the valuable ones have been extracted by the players in the informal sector.

Drawing the attention of stakeholders, he asserted that the collection rate of e-waste in Ghana is about 95% and that both collection and resource-recovery are mostly undertaken by the informal sector, allowing the informal e-waste workers to make a living from just extracting the contained valuable metals. This results in the unsafe disposal of the hazardous fraction into the environment. This mismanagement along the e-waste value chain, he reiterated, presents serious threats to human and environmental health in Ghana.

What inspires Caritas Ghana’s involvement in e-waste management is found in Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si”. Hence, the e-waste campaign, “Care For Our Common Home”, which was launched in 2017. With that, Caritas Ghana has established a decentralized collection infrastructure for e-waste within the Metropolitan Accra, and thus, a pioneer in setting up a formal collection system which is to date functioning and desiring to replicate in other regions of Ghana to ensure formal and structured nationwide collection of e-waste. Apparently, Caritas Ghana can be the link between the informal collectors and the formal eco-friendly dismantlers and recyclers.

Below were the Key Expected Outcomes of the Stakeholders Dialogue:

1. Agree on a framework to enhance collaboration and sharing of information/knowledge.
2. ldentify some bottlenecks and possible solutions and actions to address them.
3. Learn about new and state-of-the-art practices and emerging regulations in the industry.

Also, in their opening remarks, MESTI and EPA corroborated the presentation made by Mr. Georg Kerkloh, and emphatically commented on the e-waste menace in the country and the efforts the State is making to reduce its negative impacts on our environment, and personal health and safety.

One of the facilitators of the programme, Mr. Samuel Zan Akologo, addressed the participants on the importance of collaborating to care for our common home as it is being promoted by Pope Francis through his encyclical, Laudato Si’. He went further to acknowledge the current synergy among the participants present.

When it came to the Working Session in Groups to identify the challenges in the e-waste management and to recommend solutions, the participants were grouped under MDAs (MESTI, PIU-MESTI, EWASTE Fund AND EPA), CSOs/FBOs (Caritas Ghana, Caritas Accra, FAITH in Ghana Alliance and M)and Recyclers, mixed with Media.

Below were the plenary presentations (challenges and recommendations) by the groups and the next steps (tasks and who is responsible) all the stakeholders did propose to attend to, collectively and/or individually:

A. Challenges

• Absence of policy framework
• Inadequate national recycling capacity
• Low awareness creation on e-waste management
• Weak enforcement of environmental regulations
• Weak collaboration among state institutions
• inadequate/lack of education
• Incentives for collection and recycling
• Inadequate technology and business models
• Lack/inadequate infrastructure for collection centres
• Bureaucracy in issuing out permits
• Child labour

• 

  Delay in collecting waste at the centres

• Lack of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system
• Lack of financial support: subsidies, incentives etc.
• High duty charges on equipment
• State institutions and non-State institutions not turning in their waste for proper recycling and disposal
• High permit fees
• Lack of centralized system for obtaining permit
• Delay in disbursement of eco-levy
• Lack of facilities for hazardous waste treatment

B. Recommendations

• Sustain enforcement of environmental laws
• Develop sustainable business models
• Develop financing models
• Create enabling environment for private sector participation in e-waste management
• Increase sensitization on e-waste management
• Increase infrastructure for collection and recycling of e-waste
• Sensitization and awareness creation at the grassroots level
• Provide attractive incentives for collection and recycling
• Promote ESM Technology and Business Models
• Support the establishment of collection centres
• Reduce bureaucracy that impedes permitting process

  

• FBOs must educate their members on the need to send their wards to school
• Timely collection of e-waste at collection centres
• The Media should dedicate airtime and space to environmental issues
• Activation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system
• Exemption of duty charges on equipment
• Making it mandatory for State institutions to turn in their waste to recycling centres
• Making waste source segregation mandatory
• Set up Green Business desk for green businesses

C. Next Steps

Four tasks were identified, with their corresponding stakeholders who will be responsible for their implementation. These were:

1. Awareness creation and education on e-waste:- All Stakeholders (MESTI, PIU-MESTI, EWASTE Fund, Caritas Ghana, FAITH in Ghana alliance, Caritas Accra, City

   

   Waste Recycling, EWROTA and Mountain Research Institute).

2. Set up functional e-waste stakeholders coordinating mechanism/platform:- MESTI.
3. Sustain dialogue meetings of stakeholders at operational level:- Caritas Ghana, EPA, MESTI AND PIU.
4. Increase collection infrastructure:- CWR and Caritas Ghana.

Caritas Ghana was grateful to all the stakeholders, for their participation and inputs; including the organizers, the implementers, the facilitators and the sponsor of the programme.