In Senegal, a new partnership agreement for the transformation and valorisation of plastic scrap was signed between the Solid Waste Management Coordination Unit (UCG) and the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD). An initiative that will allow the experimentation of the environmental maturity of Senegalese, according to a report in Afrik21.
According to Amadou Aly Mbaye, rector of UCAD, his institution will serve as a testing ground for the new waste management system that UCG will set up. This partnership will also strengthen the collective environmental maturity of Senegalese. “The idea is to start with the university, to make it a centre of experimentation, in order to enhance the value of waste, then to spread them throughout Senegal and abroad,” the coordinator of the UCG, Mass Thiam was quoted as saying.
The agreement with the UCG partner has allowed the establishment of 16 points for the sorting and collection within the university. The deal signed between the two bodies also provides for the training of about thirty undergraduate students in the transformation of plastic scrap.
Despite the law of 2020 in Senegal banning single-use plastic bags of less than 30 microns (cups, cutlery, bags), 200,000 tons of plastic scrap are produced per year, of which only 9,000 tons are recycled. The rest is dumped in nature and the oceans, which suffocates and destroys marine biodiversity including seabirds, turtles and other fish, as per the report.