Have you ever wondered where old cars go? Well, Eastern Europe has long been where used cars from Western Europe were sold. However, according to the latest data, it seems that Europe has found a new scrapyard, that is Ghana.
Ghana has become the new graveyard of European cars and the urban area in the capital city of Accra, Agbogbloshie, is where about 250,000 tons of sorted computers, smartphones, air conditioners and other devices end up every year. In the same place there is a vegetable market, a scrap yard, a large slum, an industrial area and a household waste dump.
Agbogbloshie used to be a swamp, an area where 100,000 people now live and all those who have visited this place say it looks apocalyptic, some have even called it “Sodom and Gomorrah”. A place of survival for 6,000 employed women, men and children, who live from recycling.
Ghana imports about 100,000 old cars a year, and most of them arrive at this car scrap yard broken down or in very poor condition. It is mainly about old German cars, which have the highest value on the local market, which when they finally “die”, end up here at this junkyard. However, this is a place where not all cars are recycled, some of them are taken apart and brought back to life.
After the car is disassembled, the parts that can be used are sold to local mechanics and body shops, or at the market. Unusable parts end up as waste.
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