Beer and fizzy drinks bottles have a refundable deposit to encourage people to take them back to the shop for re-use - and we are certainly making our contribution there! Various people we meet are keen to take our plastic bottles, glass jars etc for their own storage. And there is a factory which recycles other glass into glassware for re-sale, although you have to take your glass direct to the factory slightly off the beaten track. There's a bottle bank at the UN - which might reflect the organisation's environmental commitments or could say something about the lifestyles of the significant numbers of people working for the organisation here. And at school the kids are encouraged to separate paper, plastic bottles and other waste, although it's not quite clear what then happens to this rubbish. School also hosts a collection point for old clothes, book, toys etc for a local charity, Love shack which supports children growing up in the slums. Plastic bags are a real menace across africa and some shops are just beginning to encourage customers to reuse theirs, although I get odd looks when I actually follow that encouragement.
As elsewhere in Africa, there's a long tradition of making things from what others throw away - we have seen kids playing football with a ball made of plastic bags, slingshots made from old bits of rubber tyre with elastic, flipflops turned into all sorts of things by a local company, Jamie's book bag is made from recycled plastic bags and these lovely bracelets are made by a friend's Ugandan ayah, who makes the beads from old paper.
Our own efforts at making things from empty cereal packets, loo rolls and yoghurt pots aren't so attractive but they have allowed for many a happy hour during the Easter holidays.
Anne
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