Removing barriers to plastic waste valorisation in Africa: Towards policies for value creation and capture in business ecosystems

Stimulating plastic waste valorisation is suggested as an important way to address the growing waste problem in low-income countries. However, policy interventions have not led to substantial waste valorisation, and the reasons for this have not been thoroughly analysed. We address this through a qualitative study of plastic waste in urban Zambia, which is representative of the policy and practice challenges in African plastic waste management. Using extensive data gathered through interviews, site visits and stakeholder meetings, we first conduct a business ecosystem analysis which provides a holistic view on value creation, capture, and destruction processes across all actors involved in the plastics lifecycle. Next, we map the barriers to value creation and capture by the system's main actors. Aggregation of these barriers reveals a low-value trap, in which individual actors are disincentivized to increase waste valorisation activities. Finally, we analyse the reasons why policies aimed at waste valorisation have failed to break through this status quo. We find that policies have insufficiently addressed the barriers that keep the low-value trap in place. Hence, they have not acted effectively on the root causes of systemic stagnation. By combining a business ecosystems analysis with an identification of barriers facing the individual actors in that ecosystem, our study is able to show why substantial plastic waste valorisation has not emerged despite policy incentives. Our analysis points toward concrete policy actions aimed at value redistribution and value increase, as key leverage points in the system to increase valorisation.