Germany will host the closing meeting of the project “Global Circular Economy of Strategic Metals – Best-of-two-Worlds Approach” (Bo2W) on September 23-25 in Berlin, Germany.

Launched in June 2012 and ending in September 2015, the project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The project is concerned with the problems associated with the recycling of e-waste in Africa, for both people and the environment, and the benefits that sustainable recycling can bring. It aims to investigate and facilitate the transition to sustainable recycling solutions to recover scarce and valuable metals like platinum, indium etc. from locally generated end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment and end-of-life vehicles, by developing and implementing new strategies for recycling these scrap flows in a manner that respects public health, that is environmentally sound and socially acceptable.

The project consortium includes Oko-Institut, which is one of Europe‘s leading independent research and consultancy organizations for a sustainable future, some other European and African relevant organizations including the Centre for Environment and Development (CEDARE) from Egypt. BO2W project has been implemented in Egypt and Ghana. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is one of its stakeholders, and hosted, during the last three years, two meetings of  BO2W stakeholders in Egypt.