Ghana Could Gain $5.8B Yearly From Waste by 2032

Ghana's garbage problem could become its next economic breakthrough, and the numbers are staggering.

Researchers at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research discovered that properly managing waste could generate 47.9 billion Ghanaian cedis (about $5.8 billion USD) in annual benefits by 2032. That's not just about cleaner streets. It's about transforming what most people see as trash into jobs, electricity, and saved lives.

Right now, Ghana loses more than $750 million every year because of poor waste management. The human cost is even more sobering: over 107,000 people die prematurely each year from sanitation-related diseases like cholera and pneumonia. Nearly 32 million work and school days vanish annually because people are too sick to show up.

The solution isn't complicated, just underfunded. Ghana currently spends only about $4.70 per ton of waste managed. If the country increased that to $125 per ton (matching other lower-middle-income countries), every dollar invested would return $556 in benefits.

Professor Peter Quartey, who directed the study, explained how the magic happens. Organic waste from markets and farms becomes compost that reduces expensive fertilizer imports. Plastics, metals, and glass supply local manufacturers. Municipal waste generates electricity, up to 1,484 megawatts worth, enough to meaningfully boost the national power grid.

The informal waste collectors already working Ghana's streets hold another key to success. These tricycle operators and recyclers currently work without safety equipment or social security, yet they're critical to making the system function. Bringing them into a formal waste economy would improve both efficiency and their livelihoods.

All 261 local assemblies combined currently spend just $22 million annually on waste and sanitation. That's nowhere near enough to capture the potential.

The Ripple Effect

This isn't just an environmental win. Better waste management means fewer sick children missing school, more parents able to work full days, and less money spent treating preventable diseases. It means new industries sprouting up around recycling and composting, creating steady jobs in communities that need them. Local agriculture gets cheaper, locally-made compost while manufacturers get reliable raw materials without expensive imports.

The research team interviewed workers across seven metropolitan areas and found the same pattern everywhere: waste is already creating value, just inefficiently and unsafely. With proper investment and policy support, that trickle of benefit could become a flood.

Ghana stands at a crossroads where the right choice seems obvious. Keeping current spending levels guarantees continued losses, both economic and human. Scaling up investment transforms waste from a problem into what Professor Quartey calls "a strategic national asset."

The pathway from problem to prosperity has been mapped, and it runs straight through the nation's garbage bins.