These are people in the ghettos known as bujuman (in Wolof). They come from the poorer strata of society, and have either been marginalised by their family or don’t have any family at all. With no one to count on they rely on themselves and on the little they can find. For them, recycling is a part of life. They spend their entire day looking through rubbish for things that can be re-used, repaired or resold.

Unfortunately, life is getting harder for the bujuman, as prices rise and people throw away less and less.

But the bujuman aren’t the only ones who recycle. “Apart from organic products, pretty much everything is recycled in the ghetto”, says Jiby, from Keur Massar. People don’t do it out of environmental concern, but rather out of sheer need. And there are two main types of recycling: practical one and artistic one.

Bottles can be re-used for anything

On thing, which is always recycled, are bottles. Apart from glass bottles, you get the plastic ones that aunties and mothers use to sell their homemade juices like buye and bissap. And then you have bottles made out of polyester, which when mixed with other chemicals, liquefies and turns into superglue. Other obvious things that are being recycled are wood for furniture, old rice bags filled with hay for mattresses. But the ‘Special Originality Prize’ goes to Papy Ndiaye from Pikine who managed to make some amplifiers with two small plastic tanks and a few cables. And then you have people who recycle televisions, computers, and cars. Actually everything linked to electronics and technology is never thrown away. Even when something is blatantly dead, its parts are always useful to repair something else.

Barrel prepared as drum

The other type of recycling is the artistic, creative one. The main ‘raw material’ is often tin cans. You will be amazed at how many things people can do with tin cans. They make all sorts of small artistic objects for tourists, like reproductions of the local public transports, minuscule bikes, decorated hangers. Tins are also used a lot to make toys, again under the form of small cars, bikes.

Dum Dum player on drum from recycled barrel

Many musical instruments in Senegal also are made out of recycling materials: sometimes you will spot big ‘dum dum’ drums (traditionally used in the South of Senegal, and usually made out of wood) made out of barrels because of lack of thick wood. Mostly it is percussions that are made with recycled material, although creative musicians in the ghetto seem to be able to get music out of anything, even waste.

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