Our rubric „shredding in extraordinary places in the world“ leads us this time to Ghana, West Africa. The country area is nearly as big as the United Kingdom and Ghana’s history is connected with the UK through its colonial times. Ghana’s capital and administrative center is Accra with 2 million inhabitants. Ghana has become world economically significant due to plenty of resources. Gold, which gave the former colony the name „gold coast“ is still the most important export product.

But all that glitters is not gold. The government of Ghana is plagued by a waste flood, because there is nearly no waste management system developed, as for instance in Germany. That means, hardly any garbage disposal system exist and the produced waste ends up in the landscape or passes through rivers and lagoons into the ocean. Not only the waste of Ghana itself is the problem, but also the electronic waste from Europe and the U.S.A., that has been shipped here to Ghana.

Nevertheless, international representatives of the recycling industry believe that the waste crisis of Ghana implements as well a new potential: The circular economy with the use of secondary raw materials. The particular chance lies in the use of recyclables, in the recycling of metals and plastics contained in the waste. According to the material-exchange- stock-market the prices of metals have gone up. That is why electronic waste becomes more commercially attractive and gains in economic importance. In recent years, more conferences are taking place in Ghana, especially focusing on the waste sector and identifying opportunities for valuable substance recovery.

HAMMEL is a pioneer in this area and has already delivered a mobile metal screen MMS 150 into Ghana’s capital Accra, with which the input material can be separated into materially separate end products. The screen was delivered to the Lebanese company N.N.EST Metals, located in Accra and running six scrap places in West Africa. With the HAMMEL- mobile metal screen a precise separation of magnetic FE-metals and non-magnetic NE-materials can be achieved. Meanwhile company N.N.EST Metals did also set up a foundry for aluminum and copper.

Beginning 2016, company HAMMEL additionally delivered its powerful primary shredder VB 950 DK – RED GIANT to Ghana. The multitalent shreds on site particularly mixed scrap, cable, aluminum profiles and bales. The RED GIANT is further characterized by an enormous throughput, user-friendly handling and a low noise level. Company N.N. EST Metals recovers from the pre-shredded material copper, tin, aluminum, lead, zinc and iron especially for the resale to China and India.