TOGO – Waste management association, Moi Jeu Tri has secured a US$1.21 million grant from French Development Agency (AFD) to recycle electronic waste in Lomé over the next three years.
Moi Jeu Tri says that the grant will enable the collection and recovery of end-of-life appliances in the city of Lomé in Togo, where the company is supporting the ecological transition, as well as in the Ivory Coast.
The deal, according to Edem d’Almeida, Managing Director of Africa Global Recycling (AGR) and founding president of Moi Jeu Tri, “marks an important step in a process that began nearly a year ago.”
This was shortly after the AFD launched the Sectoral Innovation Facility for Non-Governmental Organizations (FISONG), a call for projects themed “Social and inclusive entrepreneurship, vector of solutions for the prevention and management of waste.”
“This very selective process led to the selection of two projects in the world including ours,” d’Almeida said.
Moi Jeu Tri aims to collect and recycle 1052 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) by 2025.
This includes old phones, computers, televisions, modems, refrigerators, microwaves and used toys.
These appliances, the company says, will be collected initially in the neighborhoods and industrial sites of the Togolese capital before being repaired or recycled by 132 young engineers who will be recruited in partnership with the Togolese Ministry of Primary, Secondary and Technical Education and Handicrafts, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Togolese branch of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Moi Jeu Tri’s initiative will also extract the lead, cadmium, mercury and palladium contained in these old appliances, which are the cause of air pollution and cancer in humans, according to Ambroise Kpondzo, the director of the West African Environment Observatory (WAO).
d’Almeida adds that the initiative aligns with the company’s ambitions, notably its plans to establish an end-of-life management channel for solar and electronic waste in Togo.
The new partnership joins existing initiatives to foster the sustainable and profitable management of solar and electronic waste in Togo.
In the long term, Moi Jeu Tri and the AFD hope to create 132 jobs and recover more waste, under their alliance.
For all the latest packaging and printing industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
