The proposed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law is expected to recognise and integrate Ghana’s informal waste collectors into the country’s formal waste management system.

Speaking at the JoyNews/IMANI Africa National Dialogue on Plastic Waste Management on August 11, Mr Larry Kotoe, Ag. Director for Sustainability and Circular Economy of the EPA, said the draft legislation has been designed to build on the existing contribution of informal waste operators, particularly their role in waste collection, rather than disrupt their activities.

“We've actually designed the draft EPR law in such a way that it will have informal functions. We call it integration. They are already performing the role of collection. We don't want to disrupt that, and they are very effective at that,” Mr Kotoe said.

According to him, the focus would be on defining the appropriate role of informal operators within the EPR framework, particularly at the district assembly level, where local authorities and local government structures play an important role in waste management.

Mr Kotoe stressed that traceability would be an important requirement under the proposed framework to ensure that collected waste can be tracked to its final destination.

“If an informal sector cannot give us that traceability, then we need to assign them a different role where we can actually push the way that they collect to a place where we can trace it,” he explained.

The approach is intended to ensure greater accountability within the waste management chain while allowing informal operators to continue contributing to waste collection.

The draft EPR framework is also encouraging informal waste operators to organise themselves into cooperatives and associations.

The official said such structures would make it easier for authorities and other stakeholders to identify, engage and work with informal operators collectively.

“When they are performing their roles, we see them as a group and then incentivise them appropriately,” he said.

The move is expected to create a more structured relationship between informal waste operators, local authorities and other stakeholders while improving coordination and accountability within the waste management sector.

The proposed EPR law forms part of broader efforts to strengthen Ghana’s waste management system by ensuring that different actors within the value chain have clearly defined and coordinated roles.