How marine pollution drives circular infrastructure

• With land-based sources accounting for 60–80% of the world’s marine pollution, Africa’s coastal systems are similarly shaped by waste flows originating inland, hence a need for upstream interventions.

• Coastal clean-up approaches have remained predominantly reactive, limiting their ability to address upstream drivers of waste entering marine ecosystems and reducing long-term effectiveness in preventing repeated leakage.

• Our take: The commitments signal the growing recognition that marine pollution is not primarily an ocean problem but a materials management problem… Read more (2 min)

Opinion: The opportunity in Ghana’s food packaging ban 

• Ms Sampah-Adjei is a Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) specialist serving as Manager for Partnerships and Business Development at Constromart Africa. Her expertise includes circular economy solutions such as e-waste recycling infrastructure, landfill engineering, urban flood mitigation and waste management projects in Ghana.

• “The real success of this policy will not be measured by the disappearance of Styrofoam alone. It will be measured by what replaces it,” she says.

• Read the full opinion article here (2 min)

Waste management gains ground in African urban infrastructure

• Despite generating millions of tonnes of waste daily, African cities struggle to develop large-scale waste infrastructure due to limited financing, constraining system-wide investment.

• With the new funding approach, waste management is becoming a core component of city-wide infrastructure investment planning, supported through larger and more structured financing packages. 

• Our take: Presents an opportunity for African cities to strengthen core service delivery while building the foundations for more integrated and resource-efficient urban systems…Read more (2 min)

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