NEWS COMMENTARY ON COPING WITH GROWING ELECTRONIC WASTE IN GHANA
By Gabriel Adukpo, a Freelance Writer
It is natural for human beings to generate waste. As a by-product of human existence, the amount of garbage is correlated to the population of citizens. When allowed to accumulate in our surroundings, garbage has many implications, especially for human health. In this regard, metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies spend huge sums of money to manage waste in their jurisdictions.
Waste consists of liquid waste, organic substances, paper, plastic, abandoned electronics, and others. While paper, human waste, and plant and animal parts can decompose over time, others, like plastic and electronic waste, are not easily biodegradable. Indeed, plastic waste has become so intolerable that the world is up in arms against the menace.
As we focus on plastic waste, we should also be mindful of the increasing amount of electrical and electronic waste in the country. Disused digital devices and appliances such as computers, mobile phones, tablets, old tube television sets, washing machines, and refrigerators constitute e-waste. Smaller items like used torchlights and mobile phone batteries are also e-waste that are discarded like household garbage.
These items are not manufactured in Ghana or any of the developing countries. Secondhands are in the majority. The gadgets keep on increasing in the country largely due to global trade in items fueled by population growth, modern lifestyles, and our interest in second-hand goods.
People keep and use second-hand electrical and electronic goods in a developing country like Ghana because they are cheaper and still attractive newer models. Moreover, they relieve the original owners who opt for the latest versions that will soon become second-hand.
Electronic devices contain copper and other rare and precious metals. It is known that a typical smartphone contains silver, gold, cadmium, palladium, and other metals. These precious metals become redundant when the gadgets break down, yet subsequent productions require them.
Valuable metals are lost when e-waste is treated like ordinary household garbage. It therefore makes sense to retrieve them for reuse in the future. Ideally, e-waste is supposed to be returned to its sources. But that does not happen. It means that the junk has come to stay. If allowed to remain in the same form, our landfill sites will be choked. Frankly, getting land for landfills is a challenge for most assemblies.
It is heartwarming that a growing number of scrap pickers also sell these broken electrical and electronic gadgets to scrap dealers. We need to encourage them to go to the remotest parts of the country and bring out even the smallest e-waste to assembly points dotted all over the country.
Like other scraps, most electrical and electronic parts are covered with rubber. In an attempt to recover copper and possibly any other precious metal, the workers resort to burning. The toxic smoke from the sites pollutes the air, causing breathing problems and skin and eye irritation to the workers and residents. The ashes also contaminate water bodies through runoff. Human, livestock, and fish health are undoubtedly at risk.
This calls for a formal e-waste management approach, which must be part of a comprehensive waste management system for all metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies.
Firstly, the citizenry must be educated that e-waste can be an economic resource and not always a nuisance when properly handled. Then, e-waste should be separated from the bulk of other garbage. This singular act of separation becomes the foundation for sorting the components of all waste in the country.
Recycling is the next logical step in dealing with e-waste. The question is, do we have a recycling plant?
Agbogbloshie in Accra is becoming a major destination for e-waste in Ghana. The heap at that site is comparable to the biggest in the sub-region, if not the whole of Africa. Almost all actors in the chain of handling e-waste defy occupational safety measures as they work without protective gear. They should be educated on the hazardous nature of e-waste.
It was reported that a few development partners and private sector companies have shown interest in Agbogbloshie. We hope a modern recycling plant is built there and in other parts of the country sooner than later.
Generally, the sequence of garbage treatment should be: collect, separate, and recycle. In this way, all local government assemblies will realize the cleaner city agenda. After all, we deserve an e-waste management system that is environmentally friendly, socially acceptable, and economically feasible.
End
