The homegrown start-ups hoping to solve Africa’s e-waste crisis
There is no night or day in Ghana’s infamous e-waste graveyard Agbogbloshie. Hundreds of unofficial e-waste pickers scour its sprawling terrain to extract components that contain copper, cobalt, lithium and other precious metals. If it has a circuit board or battery, it is fair game. These components fetch a decent price on the black market, where demand is high.
Africa has an e-waste problem. Collection and recycling are mostly controlled by informal actors who often lack knowledge of the health and environmental dangers posed by improper handling.
Hussein Apeh, supervisor and operations officer at Hinckley Recycling, a Nigerian e-waste recycler, said informal pickers are swift and persistent.
