The Circular economy: The missing layer in Ghana’s flood prevention strategy

Ghana already has models to build on: the social enterprise ASASE, for one, organises women waste pickers into a structured plastic-recovery chain, pairing steadier income with safer working conditions.

Lasting change in how a neighbourhood handles its waste tends to come from dialogue rather than instruction: residents, market associations, landlords, assembly members and collectors working out together what separation and pickup will actually look like on their own street, and then holding one another to it.

That last factor is the one you can see with your own eyes every time the water recedes: plastics, food waste, discarded clothing and construction debris packed into drains, culverts and streams.