In the Can: Burkina Faso Profits From Garbage

	A local women’s association manages the new recycling center.

When a city's waste collection rate is less than 40%, piles of trash pose a problem. Especially, when 200,000 tons of it is plastic.

But Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, is turning this problem into a lucrative solution that's cleaning up the city and providing income for its residents.

The amount of plastic waste has been increasing drastically over the last decade, and now accounts for 10% of the capital’s total waste.

Residents aren't familiar with the hazards this inorganic material poses, which only exacerbates health, environmental and agricultural problems.

The locals traditionally have used organic waste to fertilize fields, but current quantities of plastic trash are diminishing soil fertility and preventing the already scarce water from seeping into the ground.

Livestock grazing around the city and the countryside inadvertently eat the plastic. Some 30% of animal deaths are caused by ingestion of plastic.

But this year Ouagadougou got its first recycling center, built by Lay Volunteers International Association (LVIA), an Italian non-governmental organization, which had successfully implemented a similar initiative in Senegal.

The recycling initiative has already had a profound impact on the environment.

Not only does it keep the city clean, the center provides income for thousands of poor people who are reimbursed for collecting plastic waste.

"People can earn up to US$15 a week, which isn't insignificant in a poor country like Burkina Faso," says Andrea Micconi of LVIA.

The center is managed by a local women's association that numbers some 900 members. The center is projected to earn up to US$70,000 a year, with half being used to pay salaries and the other half used for maintenance.

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In partnership with the Municipality of Ouagadougou and the National Urban Park of Bangr-Weoogo, LVIA is also conducting a complementary public awareness campaign.

"We are working to change people's behavior," explains Micconi. “People need to understand the dangers of plastic and the need to recycle.”