Waste: Between Speculation and Predictability

Ghana's scrap collectors play a vital role in the country's recycling ecosystem, purchasing discarded materials from households, state institutions, and companies and selling them to smelting industries and international metal buyers. In effect, they create a crucial link in the supply chain that both scrap buyers and sellers heavily depend on. This paper explores how scrap collectors, often hailing from marginalised and migrant communities, have established a dependable waste-to-resource trade, despite the risks of speculating on waste's value and the need to secure sufficient capital for purchasing waste materials. To investigate these dynamics, this study draws on extended fieldwork conducted with scrap dealers across two cities in Ghana, complemented by focused observations at a scrap buying company. Through this research, the paper demonstrates the central role of scrap collectors in Ghana's recycling and smelting industries. However, it argues that despite their essential function, waste labor is systematically undervalued through various means. These include exploiting the workers' marginalised identities, employing corporate strategies to suppress prices, and implementing repressive government policies that destabilise the market. The study reveals how these practices not only affect the livelihoods of scrap collectors but also impact the efficiency and sustainability of Ghana's waste management system. Drawing inspiration from historical practices and conversations with Ghanaian scrap trade unions, the paper concludes by proposing specific strategies for freelance workers in waste-to-resource supply chains to enhance their bargaining power and receive fairer compensation.