A Ghanaian environmental art collective is using fashion, photography and multidisciplinary installations to challenge the global systems it holds responsible for overwhelming African countries with textile waste, expanding its membership and public engagement as the issue draws growing international attention.
The Waste Afterlife Art Movement (WAAM) grew out of the “Echoes of the Landfill” exhibition at the Museum of Science and Technology in Accra, a collaborative event for World Environment Day 2025 that brought together six Ghanaian eco-conscious artists to examine the environmental and political dimensions of discarded materials. Founded by fashion designer and eco-art activist Beatrice Arthur in July 2025, the collective has since expanded to 18 members working across fashion, photography, film, sculpture, textiles and environmental advocacy.
Arthur, who serves as Head of the Fashion Domain at the Ghana Culture Forum and is a member of the Global Fashioning Assembly, identifies as a decolonial artivist, framing her work explicitly within broader questions of environmental justice and material culture.
WAAM argues that discarded clothing, plastics and synthetic textiles must be understood as long-term environmental liabilities rather than temporary disposal problems, and that the global fast-fashion industry transfers those liabilities disproportionately onto African countries through second-hand clothing exports and industrial waste flows.
The collective’s philosophy, which it calls “waste afterlife,” centres on the persistence of discarded materials within the economic systems that produced them. Arthur has said the movement aims to push sustainability discussions past recycling campaigns and toward harder questions about production volumes, overconsumption and material responsibility at the source.
Ghana’s position in this debate carries real weight. Thousands of tonnes of textile waste accumulate annually in Accra, burdening limited waste management systems as a significant proportion of imported second-hand clothing arrives in unsellable condition.
WAAM has steadily built a public presence across Accra’s creative economy. In March, members participated in an immersive textile exhibition at Villa Veghana combining fashion installations, photography and performance art. In April, Arthur and member Jessica Nguema led an environmental awareness and identity workshop at the Mamprobi Gale Community Library for young people. The collective also collaborated with photographer Richard Annor Tetteh on a photographic project exploring Ghanaian textiles and visual identity.
Arthur is expected to participate in the anniversary celebration of the Reclaim Textile Network today, May 15, as WAAM deepens its role in sustainability and textile policy conversations beyond Ghana’s creative sector. The group is also developing a multidisciplinary installation for World Environment Day in June.
Arthur has also raised the intersection of environmental advocacy and public arts funding in Ghana, arguing that creative practitioners who genuinely promote sustainability deserve specific consideration within government cultural investment frameworks.
