Circular Economy And Ghana,what Is The Way Forward?

Turning human wastes into something useful has found expression practically into what has come to be known as circular economy. A circular economy is a regenerative way of sharing,leasing,reusing,repairing,refurbishing and recycling materials to extend product lifecycles and to eliminate pollution by minimizing the strain on finite natural resources.

It involves the combination of people, tools and resources done in a specific manner to turn waste materials into something useful. It is designed to eliminate waste and pollution by keeping products and resources in use as long as it is possible. It functions outside the traditional way of ‘take-make-waste’ process by maximizing value as said earlier through the sharing, leasing, reuse, repairing, refurbishing and recycling of waste materials.

The movement away from what is termed as linea model in the circular economy value chain shows that, around the world, economies consume over one hundred billion tons of materials in a year, with a only a fraction of this from recycled sources.

Ghana is fast establishing herself in circular economy activities with the implemention of the National Circular Economy Action Plan (NCEAP) whose focus is on changing rejected materials into economic value by targeting areas like agriculture, plastics, textiles, water and construction. These aforementioned areas are the fulcrum around which Ghana’s circular economy revolves.

With the establishment of the Ghana Circular Economy Centre based at Ho Technical University,which is in partnership with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) it is a smart move and a welcome news to all.The center is running some pilot programmes to incubate hundreds of business models with the training of entrepreneurs.

For instance institutions like Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST),also has a models in agriculture and textiles whille the University of Cape Coast (UCC) deals in plastics with the provision of localized incubation and technical support to innovators.

Ghana is also addressing severe electronic waste crisis by formalizing the informal waste sector with the provision of protective equipment using dismantling technologies to those in the industry.

There is also cross sector dialogue to improve the efficiency of material recovery with the use of sustainable agriculture and textiles and the use of circular solutions like bio char and composting. This is done to regenerate degraded soils by boosting rural farming in managing agricultural waste.

Going into circular economy and the whole gamut associated with it, it means that taking on a very good system that would address climate change and resource depletion. The key idea is that, products are programmed from the beginning to be more durable, subject to repairs and be recyclable. Materials are constantly kept in use in order to maximize the products life cycle through sharing with the power of refurbishing it. The use of circular economy enables the regeneration of natural source by ensuring that biological materials safely return to the environment.

This works effectively in biodegradable materials in the form of composts which are then digested for biogas or can be used for biochemical activities in enriching mother earth. Technically, non-biodegradable items like electronics and appliances are disassembled and the raw materials coming from them are recovered and repurposed in an attempt to prevent landfill build-up.

It is important for us to take a good look at the European Union’s attempt to implement in full the idea of circular econmy and how it is pertinent for developing countries like Ghana and the rest of the world to take advantage of this shining example by the EU and also implement it for the benefit of their people.

The European Union alone produces more than 2.1 billion tonnes of waste every year. By updating its legislation on waste management, the European Union is now promoting a shift to a more sustainable model of circular economy. In practice, it implies reducing waste to a minimum,especially when a product reaches the end of its life cycle, its materials are kept within the economy thereby creating further value. It is worthy of note too that obsolete materials have been designed to have a limited lifespan to encourage consumers to buy it again.Here, the European Parliament has called for measures to tackle this practice. It is the expectation of all that, reusing and recycling products, would slow down the use of natural resources, reduce landscape and habitat disruption and help to limit biodiversity loss.

The benefits of circular economy is therefore a reduction in total annual greenhouse gas emissions by creating more efficient and sustainable products from the start, as that would help to reduce energy and resource consumption. It is estimated that more than 80% of a product's environmental impact is determined during the design phase.

Another area very important to circular economy is the packaging industry, which is a growing issue. On the average, the European Union as a whole generates about three hundred billion Euros as an annual financial turnover which involves both production and waste management operations of packaging per year. The aim is to tackle excessive packaging and improve its design to promote reuse and recycling.

The world's population is growing and it comes with it the demand for raw materials but the supply of crucial raw materials is limited. This means that there are finite supplies of natural resources, as some countries are dependent on other countries for their raw materials. According to Eurostat, each European Union member country consumed about 14.9 tonnes of raw materials in the year 2022 alone. The total value of trade including imports and exports of raw materials between the EU and the rest of the world in 2023 was €165 billion. Exports were lower than imports, so this resulted in a trade deficit of €29 billion.

Therefore recycling raw materials has the ability to mitigate the risks associated with supply, such as price volatility, availability and import dependency. This means that critical raw materials needed for the production of technologies that are crucial for achieving climate change goals, especially batteries and electric engines would be readily available.

Any positive movement towards a more circular economy could increase competitiveness, stimulate innovation, boost economic growth and create jobs with close to 700,000 jobs in the European Union alone by 2030. Again by redesigning materials and products for circular use,it would also boost innovation across different sectors of the economy around the world as consumers will be provided with more durable and innovative products that will increase the quality of life and save them money in the long term.

Africa for that matter Ghana,must copy the shining example of the European Union who are building a circular and climate-neutral economy by 2050.To achieve this, the EU has introduced in recent years many new measures to reduce waste and make products more sustainable.

The truth is that in a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation for as long as possible, and waste and resource use are minimised. It has been noted that the European Union’s transition to a circular economy is crucial for reducing pressure on natural resources by halting biodiversity loss, achieving climate neutrality by 2050, and building a more resilient and competitive Europe.

The year 2026 saw many countries around the globe making positive moves towards the adoption of circular economy activities, aimed at establishing a single market for secondary raw materials to increase the supply of high-quality recycled materials by stimulating demand for these materials within the European Union and beyond. This paticular move by other countries, will make the EU a world leader in circular economy by 2030 with an established circularity rate in measuring world circular economy, that will show how much of the materials used are recycled or reused instead of being thrown away.

At the moment, Europe’s circularity rate is about 12% with an avowed goal of doubling it to 24% by 2030. This target is part of the EU’s clean industrial deal. The European Union is also involving the youth to achieve its aims. For example the European Union Commission in charge of circular economy is involving young people to share their views on the forthcoming Circular Economy Act as a 'Youth Check’, to assess how new laws and initiatives impact on young people.

In March 2020, the second Circular Economy Action Plan which forms the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, is Europe’s agenda for sustainable growth. And this includes initiatives addressing the entire life cycle of products, including how products are designed, as well as ensuring that waste is prevented and used resources are kept in the EU economy as long as possible.

The new regulation on packaging waste entered into force in February 2025, and it seeks to harmonise national measures by strengthening the internal market especially for secondary raw materials, manufacturing, recycling and reuse. It important to relate that in March 2022, the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles was adopted and a new regulation on waste shipments entered into force in May 2024, with an assurance that the EU does not export its waste challenges.

There is also a monitoring mechanism put in place by the EU, which ensures that there is the need to monitor the implementation and progress towards a circular economy with its direct and indirect benefits.

This allows the EU and national authorities to assess whether policies are effective by identifying best practices since the main benefits of a Circular Economy is to stop waste and pollution in our environment, and instead of throwing things in landfills, there is that innovative idea of reuse, repairs, and recycles by ensuring that it is a world without trash and pollution on lands and in the oceans.

Circular Economy is the surest means of saving the world’s limited natural like metals and oil by recycling these materials, fewer new resources are used in lowering climate change in making new products from scratch for improved greenhouse gases.

Circular economy also brings about the keeping of existing products in circulation by reducing harmful emission. There is also a very huge potential for circular economy when it comes to job creation and it involves repairing, refurbishing, and recycling requiring human effort than simply throwing things away. This has the ability to create new local jobs in countries and communities around the globe by saving money for businesses, since reusing materials lowers production costs. For example consumers spend less by fixing old items instead of always buying new ones.

In a circular economy for instance, a cobbler repairs the sole of a shoe so that it can be worn again and it saves money and the environment. When the shoe is completely dead, the rubber is melted down to build a new shoe. Nothing is lost.

WHAT ABOUT THE UPPER WEST REGION AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY?

In the Upper West Region of Ghana, this model of circular economy focuses heavily on plastic waste, organic farming, and water management to build climate resilience and to create jobs. Circular economy is taking shape locally here through the recycling of wastes. There is a collaboration between City Waste Recycling Limited, Caritas Ghana and the Catholic Diocese of Wa, which run a plastic recycling unit in Wa. This collaboration as an initiative, turns local plastic wastes into reusable resources.

It is important to mention also that, the European Union supports the Green Growth Ghana Project, which provides funding and training for women and youth-led green enterprises in Wa and its catchment areas under the concept of circular agriculture.

The situation in the Upper West Region is different from the southern half of the country, this is because the region faces an eight-month long devastating dry season. This long spell of dryness makes farming to come to a total standstill with the exception of some few irrigated areas under circular water management and agro-ecological farming. Farmers here are particularly urged to adopt the use of organic waste through composting and the recycling of water to improve crop yields. Capacity building through institutions like the Presbyterian University and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce provide business skills to local start-ups that focus on recycling and sustainability.

In all, the Upper West Region generates about 541 metric tons of solid waste daily, totalling approximately 197,429 metric tons annually. This is based on the region's population of about 901,502 people. Most of this waste comes from households and mostly made up of leftover food and plastics.

The region also has some specific details about waste management with daily output of 0.68 kg of waste produced per person, per day within the region with a challenge of waste collection and disposal. It is trite to mention that, only about 30% of the generated waste is collected properly, the rest is dumped informally or ‘illegally’ within the region.

Since the region is agrarian by nature, about 48% of its waste is organic waste that is food, plant scraps, and 33% is made up of inert dirt, plastics and rubber waste making up about 5%.

It is not a secret that in the Upper West Region, managing liquid waste is such a huge problem. Here, many households lack toilets, leading to widespread of open defecation with an unsafe dumping of liquid waste. Open defecation is therefore very rife with some communities declaring unilaterally an open defecation free areas.

There is also low access to basic sanitation in the region and a reaserch on 49,500 households in a case study of Wa Municipality findings, revealed that, organic waste and plastics dominate waste disposal practices,making it is very difficult for the circular economy to function here since there is no deliberate attempt to do so by turning wastes into something useful.

Zoomlion as a company has come to mount a recycling plant in the Upper West Region,but as to whether it is functional is another matter.Otherwise given the amount of waste generated in the region it is a fine opportunity for circular economy to truly thrive.

In a third world like Ghana with no clearly defined approach to circular economy like that of the European Union, the country stands at a crossroads as to what are the true benefits of circular economy with many political rhetorics. But with a modest start that is already in place, a lot can be achieved within the foreseeable future.

For inatance Ghana’s Circular Economy Centre which is based at the Ho Technical University in partnership with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) is a clear demonstration of a commitment by Ghana towards achieving a better circular economy within the foreseeable future.This has the greatest potential of creating jobs and other economic opportunities for the teeming youth in the country.

Writer:Seidu Ibrahim Bomanjo
Email: [email protected]

The writer is a Development Communication practitioner and an environmentalist working in the Upper West Region for over two decades.