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- Cheat sheet: Six types of waste in Africa
Cheat sheet: Six types of waste in Africa
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/a40f1be2-1f9f-4dd4-ab15-3dd9d1cd56ae/Capture_d_e%CC%81cran_2024-02-29_a%CC%80_10.18.54.png?t=1709191166)
(i) Organic waste including food makes up at least 57% of the total and generates harmful methane gas in landfills.
(ii) Construction waste (10-20%), mostly debris, also ends up in landfills and creates dust pollution.
(iii) Plastic waste (13%) litters land and sea; only 4% is recycled currently.
(iv) E-waste (1-2%) results from discarded devices and can leach into rivers from ill-run scrapyards.
(v) Textile waste (<1%) up to four fifths of second-hand clothing imported into Africa is unusable and discarded rather than sold.
(vi) Vehicle waste (<1%) is less of a problem than many assume since even the oldest cars tend to be cannibalised to exhaustion rather than dumped.