The President of the Federation of Informal Sector Waste Workers Associations of Ghana, Madam Lydia Bamfo, says the absence of clear government policy on plastic waste management remains the single biggest obstacle undermining the work of informal collectors, warning that without deliberate intervention, the country’s plastic pollution crisis will only worsen in the coming years.
Speaking to Vaultz News on the challenges facing the sector, Madam Bamfo explained that while large volumes of recyclable plastic are collected daily by informal workers across the country, much of it goes to waste because there are simply not enough recycling companies and industries available to absorb what collectors gather from the field.
Madam Bamfo called on government and the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to help create the conditions needed to attract more recycling companies into the country, arguing that this would give collected plastic somewhere productive to go rather than piling up unused in communities.
“We are looking at the state that government can put some implementation online so that we will get more recyclable companies and more industries to recycle the process that we have been collecting.”
Mad. Lydia Bamfo
She explained that one of the most persistent problems facing collectors is the lack of a fixed price for the plastic they gather, noting that without standard pricing, collectors are often shortchanged by buyers, discouraging consistent collection efforts and allowing plastic waste to accumulate uncontrolled across the country.
Call for Direct Engagement with Manufacturers
Madam Bamfo urged government to hold direct, one-on-one engagements with plastic manufacturers operating in Ghana, arguing that such conversations would help manufacturers understand the volumes collectors can supply if given the right support.
She said manufacturers need to be brought into a broader policy conversation alongside collectors and government, so that the concerns of all parties in the plastic value chain are properly considered rather than addressed in isolation, insisting that a coordinated approach is the only sustainable way forward for the industry.
Beyond policy gaps, Madam Bamfo detailed a range of practical difficulties collectors face daily, including the sheer distance involved in transporting collected plastic to manufacturers and recycling points.
She said mobilising and selling collected plastic remains a persistent logistical challenge, compounded by unpredictable pricing set unilaterally by industries with no government oversight or intervention.
She explained that industries buying recovered materials, including plastics and metals, set their own prices and purchasing schedules without any regulatory input, leaving collectors with little bargaining power and no guarantee of fair compensation for their work despite the physical demands involved.
Landfill Ownership and Sanitation Governance Gaps
Madam Bamfo raised concerns about the structure of waste management governance at the local level, noting that Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are officially responsible for waste management but often operate without dedicated sanitation units equipped to handle recycling and broader waste oversight.
She pointed to a deeper structural issue around landfill ownership, explaining that many landfill and waste transfer sites in Ghana are managed through public-private partnerships in which government owns the land but private operators run daily operations. She warned that this arrangement leaves the system vulnerable, since a private operator’s withdrawal could halt waste management activity entirely at a given site, with no guaranteed continuity of service.
“Government owns any landfill, government owns any transfer site, it means that all these challenges will keep on going on and on while other African countries where government owns the land support well over fifty percent of the management.”
Mad. Lydia Bamfo
She contrasted this with practices in some other African countries, where she said government maintains a more direct hand in supporting landfill and transfer site operations, including covering a significant share of operational costs to ensure sites can run continuously rather than on limited hours.
20 Percent Gap in the Waste Management System
Citing informal research conducted within the sector, Madam Bamfo said informal waste collectors are responsible for gathering more than 50 percent of Ghana’s waste, with formal waste management structures accounting for a further 20 percent.
She noted that this leaves an unaccounted-for gap of roughly 20 percent, which she said government and researchers should work to identify and close, particularly in underserved communities that lack regular waste collection services altogether.
Madam Bamfo expressed frustration that despite the scale of work being done by informal collectors, some members of the public and certain commentators continue to describe their activities as a nuisance, even as collectors argue they are helping to keep the country clean in the absence of adequate formal systems.
She said this perception has, at times, fuelled calls for their activities to be shut down entirely, a prospect she warned would be damaging given how many livelihoods and how much informal environmental work depends on their continued operation.
Call for Government Support, Not Closure
Madam Bamfo maintained that informal collectors are not seeking special treatment, but rather basic government support and clear policy direction that would allow their work to expand and improve.
She said that without such backing, the sector will continue to face the same recurring cycle of unregulated pricing, limited industry uptake, and inadequate landfill infrastructure that has defined plastic waste management in Ghana for years.
She expressed hope that persistent advocacy from within the sector would eventually prompt the kind of policy attention needed, even as she acknowledged that change is likely to come gradually rather than immediately, urging patience while continuing to press government for action.
The concerns raised by Madam Bamfo point to a broader structural gap in how Ghana manages plastic waste, one that stretches from the absence of fixed pricing mechanisms to unclear lines of responsibility between national and local government on sanitation.
Without a coordinated policy framework linking collectors, recyclers, manufacturers, and local assemblies, informal waste workers argue that the country’s plastic pollution problem will remain difficult to bring under control, regardless of how much work is done on the ground to collect and sort recoverable waste.
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