Abstract
Twenty years of formal private sector participation in solid waste management in Ghana has failed to deliver an increase in collection coverage and recycling rates. This article shares lessons and experiences from Accra, Ghana, a middle-income city where researchers and municipal solid waste managers have collaborated to modernize the municipal solid waste management system by working together to develop a locally appropriate response to the informal waste service sector. Stakeholders have used inclusive decision-making and participatory research methods to bring formal service providers to work in partnership with their informal counterparts to improve collection and recycling. The Wasteaware benchmark indicator framework has been used to assess and compare the improvements in the physical and governance aspects of the municipal solid waste management system, supplemented by statistical analysis of responses to a survey on the socio-economic contribution of the informal service providers in the city. Within two years of their inclusion, the number of informal service providers has increased by 71 percent, from 350 to 600, creating new livelihoods and contributing to poverty reduction. The informal service providers have been able to increase collection coverage from 75% to 90%, waste capture from 53% to 90%, and recycling rates from 5% to 18%, saving the municipality US$5,460,000.00 in annual operational costs. The results have influenced the decision-makers to move towards structural integration of the informal service providers into the formal waste service system. The shift towards practical, locally responsive interventions in Accra provides a positive example of sustainable waste management modernization, and key lessons for cities in similar economies.
Highlights
Despite the progress in high-income counties in modernizing municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in the last three decades, the same cannot be said of emerging economies, especially inSub-Saharan Africa
Within two years of engaging the informal service providers (ISPs), collection coverage increased by 20%, waste capture by 70%, recycling rates by
The apparent improvement underscores the importance of collaboration, cooperation and commitment among researchers, politicians and local authorities in identifying what works for lower-income cities of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa
Summary
Despite the progress in high-income counties in modernizing municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in the last three decades, the same cannot be said of emerging economies, especially in. ISPs often do not pay taxes nor work in the formal financial sectors of a city; they offer their clients personalized services, simple technologies, and affordable user charges, most of which are lacking in formal waste collection systems found in lower middle-income cities Despite their local knowledge, healthy price–value relationship and broad acceptability to system users, authorities charged with managing municipal solid waste (MSW) have been reluctant to recognize the ISPs as an integral and valuable part of the system [8]. The use of a team of researchers, politicians, solid waste managers and other relevant stakeholders to develop and implement the interventions within this study was deliberately designed to enable synergies that will continuously and systematically build the capacities of municipal officials and encourage local authorities to lead the process of recognizing, integrating and organizing the ISPs as part of the MSWM system of the city to improve their efficiency
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