Caring For Our Environment And Empowering One Another
Key Problems of Waste Management in Cameroon and other developing Countries
Poor Waste Collection and Recycling
A significant contractor, HYSACAM (a French acronym meaning hygiene and health in Cameroon), is mainly responsible for waste collection and disposal in landfills and other intermediate private company initiatives. To achieve an emerging economy, Cameroon has revealed its goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 32% by 2035 (Global Recycling; Cameroon Vision 2035). The weak regulatory framework on municipal waste management ensures that HYSACAM is mainly responsible for waste collection and disposal in landfills. Most HYSACAM points are along the main streets, but the interior parts are left without collection.
Absence of Waste Segregation
In Cameroon, wastes are mixed and dumped without any segregation or separation. Waste is often mixed and dumped in the environment, causing littering, pollution and environmental degradation. The waste collected is dumped in landfills and burned in the open. Individuals also burn wastes around human settlements, which cause a lot of pollution and health concerns, plastic wastes in particular.
Unaware Population
The population of Cameroon are unaware of the appropriate ways of maintaining a clean and healthy environment. They often practice open burning, including the burning of plastics around neighborhoods, which are toxic to the inhabitants. It is a “normal” practice by most people. Others include littering of waste, including food waste, around their immediate surroundings, resulting in bad odor, pollution, and health concerns such as cholera.
Our Three Pillars
People
Environment
Waste Management/Recycling:
What we are doing to remediate the above problems of waste management
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