Building Policy Coherence for Sound Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management in a Developing Country

• Author: Martin Oteng-Ababio,Mark B. Taylor,Maja van der Velden
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1070496519898218
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Building Policy

Coherence for Sound

Waste Electrical and

Electronic Equipment

Management in a

Developing Country

Martin Oteng-Ababio

1

,

Maja van der Velden

2

, and

Mark B. Taylor

2

Abstract

This article explores the compatibility of Ghana’s e-waste policy (Act 917) in the

country’s socioeconomic context. Our article starts with two main questions based

on our empirical engagements with the act which, contextually, mimics the extended

producer responsibility. First, we question the pessimistic imaginaries about the

e-waste industry that seeks its outright trade ban or promotes a single version of

recycling. Second, we query if the underlying assumptions and basic mechanisms of

extended producer responsibility can create the enabling environment to actualize

sound e-waste management. Based on prevailing context, the imaginaries appear

socially peripheral, isolated, and powerless, and we call for a broader, unbiased,

in-depth, critical systems thinking for understanding the complexities and

multidimensional nature of the waste electrical and electronic equipment industry.

We suggest that it is by fostering the positive synergies across sectors and among

policies that environmentally sound e-waste policy outcomes can be achievable.

1

Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

2

University of Oslo, Norway

Corresponding Author:

Martin Oteng-Ababio, Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana,

P.O. Box LG59, Legon, Ghana.

Email: moababio@yahoo.com

Journal of Environment &

Development

2020, Vol. 29(3) 306–328

!The Author(s) 2020

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1070496519898218

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Keywords

policy coherence, critical systems thinking, social realities, labor rationalities, Ghana

Humankind’s insatiable demand for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is

creating the world’s fastest growing waste stream (Ryder & Zhao, 2019) or a

“Tsunami of e-waste” in United Nations’ evocative terms (Steiner, 2015, p. i).

The growing waste electrical and electronic equipment (hereafter e-waste or

WEEE)

1

and the lack of environmentally sound management of WEEE have

attracted diverse intellectual and policy debates and unending media commen-

taries (Frontline, 2009; United Nations Environment Programme, 2015) over

the release of toxins to the environment and human bodies. Some studies have

criticized the burning of WEEE to harvest copper (Atiemo et al., 2016; Brigden

et al., 2008) and advocate for policies with broader global appeal and reforms,

including circular economy principles (Akese & Little, 2018; Grant & Oteng-

Ababio, 2019). In recent times, increasing awareness of the problem have led to

a “turn to extended producer responsibility [EPR] policy initiative” as a poten-

tial solution (Khan, 2018). The EPR requires manufacturers to accept respon-

sibility for the end of life of their product life cycles and seeks to regulate and

upgrade e-waste by formalizing the sector (Bald

e et al., 2017).

Meanwhile, researchers working mainly from developing economies, saddled

with the virtual nonexistence of internationally standardized treatment facilities,

more typically view WEEE management as both strategic and lucrative and

through an informal economy lens (Grant & Oteng-Ababio, 2019; Millington

& Lawhon, 2018). Ryder and Zhao (2019) make an apt pronouncement; thus,

while more electronic devices are part of the problem, they also can be a big part of

the solution. A more digital and connected world will help us accelerate progress

towards the SDGs, offering unprecedented opportunities for emerging economies

... Get it right and we will see a lot less of our precious minerals ...dumped into

landf‌ill. The benef‌it to industry and the health of people and the environment could

be enormous. (p. i)

The debate, though far from settled, only emphasizes the reformatory nature of

the global e-waste systems and policies. In Ghana, Grant and Oteng-Ababio

(2019) noted that the WEEE industry had presaged a pervasive and inexpensive

informal recycling, eff‌icient in its way but inherently hazard-ridden (also

Cucchiella et al., 2015). In most cases, engaging the WEEE industry informally

depends on whether the sector is viewed from a discourse of resilience and

innovation or from a survivalist or self-governance lens (Stacey, 2018). These

Oteng-Ababio et al. 307