Paper short abstract:

Scrap metal exports from Ghana have grown in recent years both in terms of value and volume. In the context of mounting metal demand, scrap waste is a resource frontier. Does it fall into the traps of extraversion associated with the continent?

Paper long abstract:

Africa has been associated with extractive economies of metals found in its geological formations. Less appreciated is the continent’s presence in global markets of secondary metal resources - that means metals recycled from automobile, electronic, industrial or other waste. Yet, a glance at the trade data for Ghana, which is the context for this paper, shows that annual values of scrap metal exports are significant and voluminous. What is then the political economy of the lesser appreciated ‘secondary resources’, especially as African cities bustle with second-hand markets and metal supply in the global markets falls short of the demand putting additional pressure on scrap metal to mend the gap? The paper builds on an ethnographic work in Ghana’s scrapyards and with international metal brokers. The paper traces histories of global scrap supply chains as created by West African entrepreneurs from Ghana outwards. These supply chains are recent, emerged outside state engagement, have been constituted by networks of religious and ethnic ‘brothers’, allowed for wealth accumulation among Ghana’s marginalised communities, and globalised through partnerships with Asian and Middle Eastern entrepreneurs. I focus on scrap dealers' struggles to create an incorporative economy (creating livelihoods for people in need) based on an open resource (waste) and parity between actors (business partnerships) in a global economy premised on post-colonial legacies and volatile metal prices. The paper traces these themes with reference to a series of protests organised by scrap dealers in 2019 against metal buying companies.