From October 18th until October 19th, 2023 the 11th edition of the West African Clean Energy & Environment Trade Fair & Conference (WACEE’ 23) in Accra took place. Our project manager André Rückert participated with a presentation during the WACEE conference about the approach of the ReSoCart-ED project, it’s objectives and a sneak peek into the proposed recycling solution.
The presentation was followed by a panel discussion presenting three participants: Ms. Vivian Ahiayibor (Managing Director of City Waste Recycling Limited), Mr. Larry Kotoe (Engineer and Geoscientist from the Environmental Protection Agency) and Mr. Dr. Vincent Nartey Kyere (Team Lead, Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, E-Waste Program Implementation Unit (PIU)). The discussion was used to answer certain questions regarding the presence of cartridges in the day-to-day business of the waste management companies, the role of the informal sector in a collection and recycling scheme and shone a light on the questions how the eco-levy for imported WEEE and the attached e-waste fund could be utilized to finance the recycling system.
Figure 1: The panel discussion with André Rückert, Vivian Ahiayibor, Larry Kotoe and Dr. Vincent Nartey Kyere (f.l.t.r.; photo by: André Rückert).
We thank again the panelists for their participation and the organizers of the WACEEE for their effort to set up such a well-organized fair and conference.
Apart from the presentation André Rückert had the pleasure to meet many interesting people on the WACEE and broaden the network of the ReSoCart-ED project team. We were very happy that the deputy minister of environment of Ghana Hon. Andrew Kofi Egyapa Mercer named ReSoCart-ED in his opening speech as a project that catched his attention.
The days before the WACEE André also enjoyed to visit the treatment facility for hazardous waste materials of ZEAL in Takoradi. With its modern rotary kiln, ZEAL could be a downstream solution for the toner dust that is produced during the recycling process for toner cartridges. Due to it’s hazardousness, high calorific value and small particle size this fraction especially, needs to be discarded safe and securely.
Also, in the first week our project manager met up with our local partner and friend David Aladago from Savannah Research ltd. to experience the Ghanaian cuisine, visit a Ghanaian worship service and improve his skills in eating Ghanaian Food without cutlery. Yummy! Thank you David for supporting André during his stay! Besides improving knowledge and experience in Ghanaian culture, André spent some time in the coworking space “Impacthub Accra” in whose German counterpart ECOLOGICON is a member. There he prepared for the WACEE and got to know the Ghanaian startup scene first hand.
In the second week André met up with Cornelia Stolzenberg and Markus Spitzbart from GIZ E-Waste Programme Ghana to update them about the current status of the project and discuss issues with our planned trial collection for toner cartridges.
Afterwards André met Dr. Vincent Nartey Kyere again to visit the storage facility for collected WEEE on the grounds of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. The WEEE bought back in Agbogbloshie gets transported here for safe storage and waits to be recycled in the future.
Figure 2: The storage facility for collected WEEE in Accra. Foto by David Aladago.
The last station of the business trip was a cite visit to the newly built handover centre in the same area. The handover centre should be used by collectors of WEEE as an official trading point and should also house small recycling businesses. We are looking forward to the success, the handover centre will bring to the collection and recycling sector of WEEE in Accra. Maybe it will host a recycling process for toner cartridges one day!
Figure 3: The hall of the new handover centre in Accra. (Photo by David Aladago).