Ghana | Tradewater.co

CFC Stockpiles in Ghana

Learn more about Tradewater's work eliminating old CFC stockpiles in Ghana and the climate benefits of this project.

Uncovering stockpiles of old refrigerants

Located near the Densu River in Pokuase, Ghana, City Waste Recycling is a non-profit founded by entrepreneur Jürgen Meniel. City Waste Recycling recycles old, inefficient refrigerators and offers programs for local residents to upgrade to newer, more efficient appliances. While working to address the e-waste problem, Meniel ran into a substance that he was unsure how to manage: refrigerant.

Meniel contacted Tradewater’s CEO, Tim Brown, to determine what could be done.

The Densu River supplies half the drinking water to Ghana’s capital city of Accra, but its ecological fate is complicated: it has been dubbed “the world’s digital dumping ground.” Increased consumption of electronic products and the ongoing import of waste electronics, such as used mobile phones, computers, refrigerators, and stoves, has left the once thriving wetland overtaken by e-waste capable of releasing carbon monoxide and other hazardous substances into the atmosphere.

Learn more about Tradewater’s sustainability development goals here.

Despite the complicated international regulations required for work of this kind, an entrepreneurial spirit drove both Brown and Tradewater COO Gabe Plotkin to see through the potential complexities to the potential environmental benefit – and a trip to Ghana was scheduled.

Working with Ghanaian business owners

In Ghana, Tradewater discovered a massive store of unused R-12, or chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerant, commonly known as Freon. R-12 has a global warming potential that is over 10,000 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Alongside employees at a local chemical contractor, Nak-na Electric & Trading, Tradewater classified the material by type, affixed tracking barcodes, and prepared it to be shipped to the United States for destruction.

Navigating borders and protocols

At the time, global NGO’s did not include unused CFCs in their carbon offset protocols. To ensure the material could be sold once it was shipped from Ghana, Tradewater worked with Verra to build an updated protocol to include unused CFCs. This created the capacity to generate verified carbon offset credits from the work, making them available to buyers. Shortly after, the American Carbon Registry created its own protocol for these substances. After navigating international environmental protocols around transporting hazardous waste, Tradewater successfully transported the material back to the United States for destruction in a series of two trips.

I found these canisters in a shed but can't sell them because CFCs are banned everywhere. If it wasn't for Tradewater, the canisters would stay there forever and eventually escape into the atmosphere.

Jürgen Meniel

City Waste Recycling

Project impact

Tradewater’s work in Ghana achieved three United Nations sustainable development goals: No Poverty, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Climate Action. We did so by providing resources to City Waste Recycling that enhanced local economic growth and formal employment opportunities. Our work responsibly destroys the most potent greenhouse gases permanently. With no end-of-life solution, this action removes the risk of these gases ever leaking into the atmosphere, ensuring a healthier planet.

Carbon credits generated from this work are now available for purchase and can help any business diversify their carbon offsetting portfolios. And your purchase matters—our business model is based on a positive cycle in which we create economic value from the destruction of potent and harmful refrigerant gases, and invest the proceeds into new projects to find, collect, and destroy more dangerous greenhouse gases.

Total tons of CO₂e destroyed

Project Details
Project location	Accra, Ghana
Project type	Ozone depleting substances (ODS)
Project type	Carbon avoidance
Registry	Verra (VCR)
Years active	2018-2019

Batch	Batch ID	Vintage	Tons of CO₂e	Weight of CO₂	Verifier	Project Documents
01	1752	2018	19,647	1,940 kg	GHD	GHG Project Plan	Validation and Verification Report
02	1752	2019	135,784	13,217 kg	RCE	GHG Project Plan	Validation and Verification Report