Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Formalizing Informal Solid Waste Management Practices in Ghana

The changing volume and content of municipal waste has overwhelmed the containment capacities of city authorities to remediate the problem. This elusive enterprise has sparked as much dissatisfaction with the mad rush for foreign-based models as with the new conceptual interventions. Many have questioned why a monumental challenge still lingers on in spite of the “much-acclaimed†potentials of the new interventions. Our article extends the debate by focusing on the politics of solid waste management, and how it shapes environmental safety. Based on content analysis of earlier studies, complemented with key informant interviews, the article raises issues with emerging models, which overemphasize the role of foreign-based approaches against indigenously derived practices. Using our study outcomes, we argue that the development trajectories of most Ghanaian cities create specific contestations, which configure the informal sector and the built environment in unique ways. We demonstrate that the new models have hardly had visible success stories after two decades of experimentation because they are incompatible with the local development trajectories. Concluding, we caution that the problem will persist and potentiate a cyclical state of dissolution, unless those who eke out livelihood from the sector informally are recognized, valued, and taken into account in local economic development.