Students of the Faculty of Engineering of the Sunyani Technical University have participated in a day’s training programme on electronic waste (e-waste) management to help them to apply their technical and creative thinking skills to the challenge of e-waste management in Ghana.
Besides, it was to expose the students to the concepts of circular economy focusing on e-waste, introduce them to basic techniques in handling e-waste including the basics of storage, collection, take-back and the disposal techniques as well as arouse the students’ interest in possible business opportunities and careers in the e-waste management sector.
Participants of the training programme were drawn from Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Materials Engineering and the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Departments.
The Programme formed part of a project titled, “E-Waste Management in Ghana (E-MAGIN Ghana): From Grave to Cradle” with sponsorship from the European Union under the Switch Africa Green Phase II (SAG Phase II) Project, being implemented from January 2018 to December 2021.
In his opening remarks, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of STU, Dr. Samuel Wiafe said studies have shown that each person in Ghana generates about 0.47kilogram of waste per day.
Dr. Wiafe said about 41.8 million metric tons of e-waste is generated in Ghana and hoped that going forward more innovative ways would be found to better handle the situation, adding that some of the e-waste contain mercury, cadmium and lead; and when these metals are not well disposed off, they find themselves in the soil and our water bodies thereby posing as a danger to the health of people.
Taking the students through “Insights from Money Dey for Borla…”, the Project Manager of Adelphi, Ebenezer Kumi, recommended the allocation of land to micro-small and medium enterprises to set up e-waste projects.
He also called for increased awareness creation on the economic potentials in e-waste and the strengthening of monitoring and enforcement of laws of waste management.
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Office of Public Relations Unit
13th March, 2021