battling plastic waste
in casamance

The aim of Waste@Work is for the local community to manage the large quantities of plastic waste. The whole of society must contribute to make it happen, and now people have woken up.

Casamance in southern Senegal is Senegal's most lush region, with rivers, wetlands, large forests and gardens with mango, papaya, lemon, passion fruit and many fruits you've never even heard of.

 Senegal has a coastline of 24,000 km, and the fishing industry is very important. So is tourism. The beaches are among the best in the world, and surfers have also discovered them. In Casamance, with a few exceptions, there is only small-scale tourism, so villages and towns have retained their distinctive character and are not destroyed by mass tourism. Most still live in the traditional way, from fishing, farming, their rice fields and vegetable gardens and small shops and workshops.

Plastic everywhere
But people are wading in plastic waste. On beaches, streets, backyards, road ditches, soil, in wetlands and rivers, there is plastic that comes from households, businesses, shops, cafes and from the tourism industry and the fishing industry. In addition, the waves throw plastic over the beach and land from the Atlantic Ocean. It has been going on for many years. The surface can look clean, while the plastic is deep in the sand.

Change is coming
However, in recent years people have woken up. They fight against littering. It's easier said than done, as there is no organized waste management here, neither private nor public. In the villages, the waste is collected in piles in specific places, both plastic and other, and when the pile becomes large enough, the waste is burned, and then a new pile begins to grow. This is common for the whole country. 

On beaches and in nature otherwise, the plastic usually remains lying around and is eventually covered by vegetation or sand and slowly disintegrates and becomes microplastic. If it is not eaten by birds, fish, turtles or livestock first. In any case, the plastic ends up in the food chain over time, and we humans ingest microplastics through our food.

Recycling scheme
Among other things, Waste@Work tries to contribute to getting a recycling scheme started. In order to achieve this, we have initiated many different measures which together form a rather large project.