Private Waste Collection in the Tema Metropolis, Ghana: A Spatial Analysis of User Satisfaction

The paper assessed the work of private formal actors in waste management and whether their service meets the objective of equitable spatial distribution to the communities they serve. We conducted interviews with public metropolitan actors, private waste management companies and their beneficiaries (household heads). Through interacting with the beneficiaries, we measured how effectively the private formal actors meet the equity objective in managing solid waste, an impure public good because some households are excluded from its benefit through fees or charges. However, because of the negative externality associated with waste, its management or collection is always expected to benefit all equally. The assessment revealed that private waste management (collection) was unequal across the selected communities. This has led to low-quality waste collection services in some areas, undermining residents’ rights to a quality environment and reinforcing injustice. The study revealed financial, regulatory and infrastructural reasons contribute to such unequal management. Our paper contributes to existing analytical studies measuring the effectiveness of public-private partnerships in the management of solid waste by specifically looking at the equity dimension of formal private collection.