It’s a familiar joke across Niger that the national bird of the northwest African desert state is a black plastic bag, winging its way from market stall to trash heap to flock to the bare-branched trees around the dusty capital.
In an effort to clean up its capital city and surrounding countryside for a hoped-for tourist boom, Niger is following the example set in Europe and around Africa by trying to curb the pollution caused by the ubiquitous single-use plastic bag.
In an experimental project financed by the European Union, bricks of the plastic sacks are being used to fill potholes around Niamey.
The government of Niger buys used plastic bags for 25 CFA francs, (about three cents) per kilo, then compresses them with a new ceramic mold technology and binds them into bricks.
“The bags are melted and transformed into bricks with a cement mold, which saves time and money. The plastic bricks are then used to fill a pothole, and covered with earth or cement.”
A neat solution to more than one problem.
Tourism boom???? In Niger, cant say it will be my next vacation but I guess.
Finally a solution to this ever growing environmental problem !!!!
Where can I find more information about this program?
Ingrid
http://ingridpatetta.blogspot.com (visit to watch a video about Niger)
Sounds brilliant. They could call it the “Let’s bury a finite and potentially dangerous resource (if it were to leach into the ground or something like that) to get it out of mind instead of finding alternative products and actually solving the problem program.” I know it’s a little wordy, but I like the sound of it myself.