Our study addresses a gap in knowledge by examining the interplay between interventions and sustainability within Ghana’s e-waste industry. We assess the ongoing circular economy initiatives in e-waste, connect them to prospects for sociotechnical transition, and reflect on critical integration gaps and challenges. We analyze acts/policy documents and interview 20 key stakeholders. Our findings highlight the complexity of transitioning from informal practices to integrated spatialized circularity. Vertical integration efforts (capacity-building programs, public-private, and formal-informal partnerships) are weakly calibrated with horizontal integration initiatives (multi-stakeholder collaborations, data-driven resource allocation, and multiscalar policymaking). While efforts have yielded some positive social and environmental impacts, including reducing some health/safety risks for some informal actors, challenges persist due to limited stakeholder engagement, disjointed value chains, and regulatory gaps. To ensure sustainable progress, we recommend a reflexive process of circular economy implementation and feedback systems, e-waste value chain integration, infrastructure development, stakeholder engagement, public education, and a unified legal framework.

The Eastern Coastline of Ghana is facing intense natural and anthropogenic disturbances, which pose a serious threat to the coastal community, ecosystem, and livelihoods. This study assessed the shoreline changes occurring along the Eastern Coast of Ghana stretching 149 km from Laloi Lagoon West of Prampram to Aflao, Ghana. The study utilizes satellite images from Landsat 4TM, Landsat 7 ETM+, and Landsat 8 OLI taken between 1991 and 2020. Data pre-processing techniques using ENVI 5.3 included calibration, layer stacking, mosaicking, and supervised classification. Post-classification shorelines were extracted using ArcGIS 10.7, and the DSAS tool was used to determine the rate of change over the 29-year period. The results showed that the coastline experienced an average erosion rate of 9 m/y and a maximum rate of 24 m/y, however, the accretion rate (3 m/y) was much lower, reflecting general coastline retreat. Thus, some 25 coastal communities are highly exposed to shoreline erosion. Sustaining the coastal area may require coastline re-engineering interventions. This study recommends continuous monitoring of the shorelines to ensure the protection of livelihoods. Implementation of both hard engineering and ecosystem-based adaptation strategies may be required to achieve holistic results toward sustainable coastal management.

Ghana’s e-waste sector — concentrated in urban hubs including Accra’s Agbogbloshie-Sodom complex, Kumasi’s Dagomba and Akwatia lines, and sites in Tamale and Sunyani — constitutes one of West Africa’s most significant mineral waste streams, generating annual economic value estimated at US $105–$268 million and sustaining livelihoods for over 200,000 people. Yet the governance and policy frameworks necessary to enable systematic, safe, and economically productive mineral waste valorisation remain fragmented, under-resourced, and disconnected from circular economy principles. This paper examines the governance architecture, social-ecological sustainability dynamics, and policy barriers shaping mineral waste valorisation in Ghana’s e-waste sector, drawing on original qualitative research involving 21 key informant interviews with stakeholders from government, civil society, development partners, private sector, and academia, complemented by policy document review and field observations across multiple sites. Applying an integrated Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework and sociotechnical transitions theory, the study identifies three structural barriers to effective valorisation: institutional fragmentation and policy-implementation gaps; economic distortions including foreign market dominance and pricing asymmetries that undermine incentive systems; and inadequate land allocation and ecological governance, exacerbated by the demolition of the central Agbogbloshie scrapyard. Findings reveal that while emerging interventions — including incentive-based collection systems, Human Capacity Development programmes, and public-private infrastructure partnerships — demonstrate promising results, their impact remains limited due to weak vertical and horizontal integration across the value chain. The paper advances a governance reform agenda centred on informal sector inclusion, unified policy frameworks, sustainable financing mechanisms, and spatially anchored circular economy implementation as prerequisites for unlocking the full valorisation potential of Ghana’s mineral waste streams.