CC image courtesy of Jake Brown, on Flickr.
A United Nations report has urged the Ghanaian government to support its recycling sector to ensure it can cope with the huge amounts of e-waste that ends up in the West African country.
The report was published by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Right last week and highlighted the Agbogloshie area in particularly, which has become contaminated from the burning of toxic waste.
Much of the burning takes place illegally in the “informal recycling sector”.
The report said: “There is a need to ensure that local communities that depend on recycling electronics for survival receive sufficient support and alternative means of livelihood to discontinue this harmful trade.”
The majority of e-waste is produced outside of Africa in markets such as America, Europe and Asia, but finds its way to the continent for second hand sales.
In May 2011, a separate report carried out Ghanaian non-government organisation (NG)) Green Ad, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) said 171,000 tons of e-waste reach Ghana every year, with almost all of that going to the informal recycling sector.
Around to 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste is produced globally every year.
