Hazardous pesticides are an overlooked circular crisis

June 29, 2025

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Seven African countries have been selected in the first round of funding from the Global Framework on Chemicals Fund, joining global efforts to phase out highly hazardous pesticides. While pesticides aren’t officially classified as waste, their toxic legacy makes regulation critical to Africa’s broader shift toward circular economies.

  • As a largely agricultural continent, Africa has some of the highest pesticide exposure rates globally. This makes the region especially vulnerable to chemical-related health harms, yet solutions remain underfunded and poorly enforced.

  • While plastics and e-waste receive growing attention and investment, chemical waste remains a blind spot. Weak regulation continues to allow toxic exposures to persist across farming and other sectors.

  • Our take: Ecological alternatives to hazardous pesticides are not optional; they are essential to building resilient agricultural systems….Read more (2 min)

Progress in waste management across Africa remains painfully slow due to a lack of political will, says Aifani Confidence Tahulela, a scholar in public administration. She argues in a guest article that the waste crisis is driven by weak governance and institutional neglect, not by a shortage, resources, technology or technical expertise.

  • Ms Tahulela notes that despite large municipal budgets, waste services remain uneven in major cities, especially in informal areas, revealing structural inefficiencies and deep-rooted inequalities that point to poor governance.

  • To promote clean, livable and climate-resilient cities across Africa, she urges governments to elevate waste management to the top of the political agenda, warning that without political commitment, other efforts will achieve little lasting impact.

  • Click the link to read the full op-ed… Read more (2 min)

As solar energy adoption accelerates across Africa, a new study in Ghana warns of a looming waste crisis. Without clear end-of-life policies and recycling systems, discarded solar panels could pose major environmental risks, undermine the continent’s sustainability goals and expose a critical gap in its green energy transition.

  • The study quantifies a projected solar waste stream of 324,000 kg in Ghana by 2060, highlighting a pattern likely to emerge across Africa as solar adoption rises, bringing with it the growing burden of managing end-of-life photovoltaic modules.

  • Africa lacks the infrastructure to respond to the new waste burden. Solar PV remains requires specialised recycling, but informal or weakly regulated systems across the continent limit safe material recovery, raising environmental risks.

  • Our take: Africa’s solar revolution must be matched with a circular vision…Read more (2 min)

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Youths collect plastic waste at Entoto Park in Ethiopia

Events

🗓️ Network at the WASTE 360 conference in South Africa (July 8)

🗓️ Register for the Circular Economy & Bioeconomy Conference in S.Africa (July 23)

🗓️ Attend the Plastics Recycling Show Middle East & Africa in Dubai (September 15)

🗓️ Take part in the ESG Africa Conference in South Africa (October 15)

🗓️ Participate in the Nature and Circularity Week in South Africa (October 20)

🗓️ Sign up for the Landfill & Waste Treatment Conference & Exhibition (October 24)

Jobs

👷 Work as a Senior Associate Waste at XSML Capital (Kenya)

👷 Help First Quantum Minerals manage waste (Zambia)

👷 Serve as an Sustainability Specialist at Dube TradePort Corporation (S.Africa)

👷 Be the next Environmental Lead at Airswift (Mozambique)

👱 Consult for the International Telecommunication Union (Africa)

Various

⛔ Manufacturers protest single-use plastics ban in Ethiopia

💹 Global waste-to-energy market to reach $56 billion by 2032

🏭 Johannesburg unveils proposal for new waste-to-energy plant

🌇 Ghana establishes innovation hub to drive circular bioeconomy

🔊 West Africa announces PROTEGO Marine Litter Innovation Challenge

Seen on LinkedIn 

Jose Ramon Carbajosa, a circularity consultant says, “In many countries of the Global South, the end-of-life of products is a blind spot. When electronics, packaging or textiles reach their final use, the burden of waste management too often falls on local communities — or worse, is left to informal actors with no safeguards.”