Caritas Ghana kick starts E-waste project

The Caritas Ghana, the Charity wing of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), has held a roundtable meeting with partners to prepare the grounds for the implementation of the E-Waste project.

The Caritas E-Waste ‘Care for our Common Home’ project, launched in October 2017, was in response to calls by Pope Francis in his second encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ and GCBC for immediate action to address electronic waste and ultimately help preserve earth.

Mr. Samuel Zan Akologo, Executive Secretary, Department of Human Development/ Caritas Ghana, explained the purpose of the meeting, to get to know the companies expressing interest to partner in the E-Waste project and agree on the next step towards a possible cooperation.

He also presented the concept note of the project to the partners, and invited them to submit proposals of interest, which will possibly lead to bilateral dialogue on building synergies on areas of value addition, as well as the contracting phase of the project.

The companies present at the meeting included, City Waste, Closing the Loop and Atlantic Phones, took turns to explain their work in relation to electronic waste management and expressed interest in partnering with Caritas on the project.   

Each of the company representative clarified the nuances and risk involved in the collection of e-waste products, especially phones, laptops, the processes and procedures involved in removing the various parts and export of other components.

The Participants at the meeting

Very Rev. Fr. Lazarus Anondee, Secretary General of the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS), who welcomed the partners to the meeting, noted that the Project was inspired by the Pope Francis’ encyclical: Laudato Si with particular reference to the content of paragraph 21 (LS21).

The Church, he explained would continue dialoguing, with various stakeholders including the Government, Corporate organisation, among others to explore the best way of working together to address the e-waste menace in the country.

He also donated copies of the Laudato Si to the representatives of the companies and encouraged them to read in order to support efforts to save our common home