Introduction

Reliable data is the foundation for sound policy, targeted investment, and meaningful SDG monitoring. Yet across Africa, municipal solid waste (MSW) data has historically been inconsistent, extrapolated, or incomplete. Through the African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP), UN-Habitat has addressed this gap by applying the Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT), Waste Flow Diagram (WFD) and the Nine Development Bands (9DBs) across 30 African cities between 2020 and 2024.

The result is one of the most comprehensive, comparable datasets available on municipal solid waste systems across the continent, spanning West, Central, East, North and Southern Africa. The cities include Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire); Abuja (Nigeria); Addis Ababa (Ethiopia); Alexandria (Egypt); Bahir Dar (Ethiopia); Beni Khalled (Tunisia); Bissau (Guinea-Bissau); Bukavu (Democratic Republic of the Congo); Cape Coast (Ghana); Dakar (Senegal); Dakahlia (Egypt); Dar es Salaam (Tanzania); Freetown (Sierra Leone); Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (Uganda); Harare (Zimbabwe); Homa Bay County (Kenya); Iramba District (Tanzania); Jigjiga (Ethiopia); Kiambu (Kenya); Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo); Kisumu (Kenya); Kitwe (Zambia); Koidu (Sierra Leone); Lagos (Nigeria); Mombasa (Kenya); Nairobi (Kenya); Nakuru (Kenya); Sekondi-Takoradi (Ghana); Sousse (Tunisia); and Zomba (Malawi).

Scope of the assessment

Using a standardised approach, cities were assessed through:

1. WaCT: A structured 7-step methodology to quantify MSWM performance
2. WFD: Mapping waste flows and identifying leakage pathways, including plastic emissions
3. 9DBs: Categorising waste management system maturity

Together, these tools provide a full picture of how waste is generated, collected, recovered, and ultimately managed or leaked into to the environment.

What the data reveals

1.      Generation and composition

One of the most striking findings is how consistent the waste stream appears across very different urban contexts. Average waste generation across the 30 cities is 0.78 kg per capita per day, with a range from 0.38 to 1.6 kg. In 27 of the 30 cities, organic waste is the principal fraction, averaging 56% of municipal solid waste and reaching up to 80% in some cases. Dry recyclables make up roughly 30 to 40% of the waste stream, while plastics account for 12 to 18%. Despite differences in income levels and geography, waste composition patterns are remarkably consistent, highlighting shared consumption trends across the continent.

2.      Collection

Collection, however, is where a major system gap becomes visible. Average collection coverage across the 30 cities is only 48%, with a median of 52%. The contrast between city types is particularly notable: secondary cities average 28% collection coverage, while capital cities average 66%. At the lower end of the scale, Iramba records 0.6%, Kinshasa 1.6%, and Bukavu 7%. At the other end, Dakar reaches 95%, Addis Ababa 94%, and Sousse 90%. It is noted that informal settlements and peri-urban areas, as expected, remain the most underserved.

3.      Recovery

Recovery and recycling present a more mixed picture where recovery rates exceed 40% in larger cities with strong markets, but fall below 10% in remote towns. The central role of informal workers, who recover up to 70% of recyclables in some cities is also highlighted, with their contribution going beyond recycling, with many providing door-to-door collection, awareness raising and clean-ups as well. At the same time, approaches such as mechanical biological treatment (MBT) and composting are emerging, but remain limited.

4.      Disposal

Perhaps the most striking finding is the state of disposal. In 22 of the 30 cities, uncontrolled disposal is still the norm. Only 38% of collected waste goes to controlled sites, and only 5 assessed cities meet basic level of control as stipulated by the WaCT. Plastic leakage is also shown to be severe, with an average of 42% unmanaged plastic, rising to 80% or more in the worst cases. Additionally, open burning occurs in 16 cities, particularly in low-coverage areas where collection falls below 30%. The result is widespread leakage into the environment, affecting waterways, increasing flooding risk, and contributing to air pollution and public health impacts.

The need for standardised data

When cities begin to measure waste in a consistent way - such as implementing the WaCT, WFD, and 9DBs - they are no longer working in isolation. Instead, they contribute to a shared, measurable and comparable evidence base that helps cities move beyond assumptions, reveals the scale of the challenge, learn from each other to support improved planning, benchmarking and investment decisions and move closer towards solutions.

Call to action

The key recommendations highlighted for the continent are:

1. Extending collection coverage, especially in underserved areas;
2. Promoting wet-dry segregation to improve material recovery;
3. Supporting decentralised and community-level recovery options such as composting, BSFL and biogas;
4. Recognising and integrating the informal sector;
5. Upgrading uncontrolled dumps to at least a basic level of control;
6. Strengthening value chains and policy tools such as EPR;
7. Eliminating open burning through better services and awareness.

It also calls for WaCT to be institutionalised for regular monitoring, for MSWM to be linked to climate, NDC and methane reduction agendas, and for peer learning and data-driven planning to be expanded across Africa.

Shared learning

When cities use reliable and comparable data, waste systems become easier to understand, easier to benchmark, and easier to improve. In that sense, the ACCP work is not only revealing the scale of the challenge across 30 African cities, but it is also showing what a stronger foundation for action can look like.

References

1. UN-Habitat. (2025). When waste speaks: What ACCP’s data collection has revealed so far. African Clean Cities Platform. Link