Politics of electronic-waste policy in Ghana: Governing informality and its health risks in a circular economy transition

Ghana’s informal electronic waste sector sits at the intersection of global waste and recycling value chains and is central to circular economy implementation. The sector faces severe environmental and health risks, and policy approaches to regulate these risks differ. This study examines how key stakeholders understand and govern these risks and how competing policy approaches seek to regulate informal e‑waste work in Ghana. Drawing on fourteen semi-structured interviews with representatives from non-governmental, governmental, and private actors, as well as informal sector associations and collectors, completed by field observations and photography the article analyses stakeholder narratives, power relations, and collective dynamics surrounding recent policy measures. The analysis contrasts a coercive approach, exemplified by the 2021 demolition of the Agbogbloshie scrapyard, with an incentive‑based system that remunerates collectors for delivering “negative fractions” that are otherwise burned. It shows how the framing of informality and sustainability impacts the construction of policy interventions, and how informal workers’ resistance or compliance conditions their implementation. The case highlights the importance of recognising the informal sector and strengthening local governance capacities if environmental and health protections are to advance in ways that are socially and politically viable. It argues that scaling a systemic approach that is sensitive to local knowledge and power dynamics with broader health protections beyond air pollution offers a viable path to transform Ghana’s e-waste sector and rebalance unequal global circular-economy relations.