Yaounde : Job creation through plastic and waste collection

Job creation is emerging in Yaounde through plastic and waste collection, where young people are turning recyclable waste into a source of income within increasingly organized community systems.

Plastic waste has become a daily working material. Young men and women move through streets, markets, and informal dumping sites collecting bottles and other recyclable items. This functions as a form of informal employment.

The system is reinforced by community clean-up initiatives that structure waste collection into specific days. In the Damasneighborhood, residents observe a “Thursday clean-up,” while in Mendong, a similar initiative takes place every Friday. These regular activities increase the volume of collected plastic and help organize neighborhood-level sanitation.

Organized plastic recovery 

In the Mendong neighborhood, job creation through waste collection has taken a more structured form. A local association works exclusively on plastic waste, particularly bottles. The group collects materials during clean-up days and daily collection rounds, then sorts and stores them before selling them to recycling companies.

This process creates a clear chain of economic activity: collection at community level, aggregation by the association, and monetization through formal recycling buyers. For young people involved, this system provides more regular income opportunities compared to individual informal collection.

This type of initiative also contributes to the development of a circular economy in Cameroon where plastic waste is reintegrated into the production cycle as reusable resource rather than discarded.

As a result, for many young people, waste collection has become a stable livelihood strategy rather than a temporary survival activity.

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