Ghana wants no more European car scrap
Africa has had enough of dirty cars from industrialised countries. At least in Ghana, the import of old cars that are no longer roadworthy is prohibited.
Old cars are those that are no longer approved by the TÜV and are therefore no longer roadworthy. More than half of all vehicles exported as end-of-life vehicles end up in Africa. Ghana alone imports 100,000 discarded cars every year. These cars are very popular there because, on the one hand, they are repaired and, on the other, they are full of raw materials. Moreover, the catalytic converters can be removed and reused. The precious metals palladium, platinum and rhodium also make a scrap car still valuable, because one gram of rhodium currently costs over 450 euros.
But many a scrap car discarded in Europe is actually given a new lease of life in Africa. Actually, these cars should no longer be on the roads, as road safety is declining in African countries and serious accidents are a common occurrence. Many of the end-of-life cars sold to Africa and still driven there should not even be on the road by German standards. This is because, apart from the lack of road safety, the main problem is the high exhaust emissions, which often no longer even meet the Euro 4 standard.
The head of the Ghanaian government, Akufo-Addo, therefore no longer wants this amount of scrap cars in his country. That is why he had the import of scrap cars banned in 2020. Specifically, this concerns vehicles that are more than ten years old, but also those that have been destroyed in an accident, by fire or water.
In order to prevent Africa from disposing of old cars for Europe in an environmentally harmful way, the EU also wants to intervene: the last vehicle owner is to be made responsible and pay for recycling or scrapping himself. Only then should the vehicle be considered deregistered. But the vehicles that are brought back to life in Africa and pollute the air are also to be better controlled. A European inspection sticker could confirm whether the vehicle is approved for export before it is reactivated in Africa. This could prevent air pollution from merely shifting from a rich continent to a poor one.