Volontaire-Globalisation (V-GLOB) was launched in February of 2002 in Djidjole, a suburb of Lome, by a group of young volunteers hoping to maintain a safe environment and propitious global development.  The mission of V-Glob is focused on mobilizing good will to encourage investment in voluntary services, while concentrating on socio-educative and cultural integration of children and the promotion of the Millennium Development goals in villages and rural areas of Togo. V-Glob also aims to stimulate the internal development capacities of vulnerable communities that are deprived of education structures, adequate sanitation, drinking water, and grass-roots infrastructure that can boost durable development.  Since its inception in 2002, V-Glob has worked on a wide range of projects involving rural development in Togo.  Their projects include, but are not limited to, donations of supplies to local health care centers, the construction of a library in rural Togo, construction of a secondary school in Bagbe and research and education programs addressing reproductive health, culture, and non-violence [2].

Recently, V-Glob has become very concerned with the large amount of environmental pollution that has been created by the over-abundance of discarded plastic bags in Lome, the capital of Togo.  Shoppers usually receive several thin, low-quality plastic bags to carry their purchases. These bags are almost impossible to reuse.  Additionally, there are no easily accessible recycling facilities for residents, and few efforts have been made to educate the public about the importance of recycling.  The most feasible way for households to dispose of the bags is to burn them, a method that is extremely harmful in that it releases toxins into the air, but commonly used. Bags that are not burned litter the streets, sewers, or fill with rain water, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes (which are especially dangerous because mosquitoes are the main carriers of Malaria). 

The negative environmental effects of improperly discarded plastic bags are being felt all around Sub-Saharan Africa.  Many countries including Botswana, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Eritrea, and Rwanda have banned thin plastic bags entirely [3].  Reuse of these bags is impossible. Once discarded into the environment, they are not breakdown for at least 1,000 years [4].  When they do breakdown, the plastic bags release dangerous toxins which contaminate soil and waterways, harming communities and marine life.

Considering the severity of this issue, V-Glob is committed to ridding Lome of the litter by any means possible.  V-Glob has coordinated with the IIJD and students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston to create a solution for this troublesome issue. This connection was established when students from MIT, majoring in mechanical engineering, contacted the IIJD for a developmental engineering project. The students were asked to work with local NGOs which informed them of specific environmental concerns that they would like addressed. The students chose from among those ideas, and began developing projects to address the particular issue.  A group of students from MIT came up with several ideas about how to recycle plastic bags in an effective way.  Some of their ideas included making stronger bags, backpacks, rope, flip-flops, or other useful products from sheets of recycled plastic.  The MIT students decided to focus on the development of a machine that would create rope from the recycled plastic bags.  They chose the urban slum of Forever as a location for the recycling plant because of its high population density and the lack of regular trash collection available to its residents. In addition to its environmental benefits, the development of a recycling plant that reuses plastic bags to create useful products such as rope would have economic benefits for the Togolese by creating new employment opportunities.

Although the students at MIT were unable to pursue the completion of the project, they presented the IIJD and V-Glob with some very useful ideas that will help to ensure a solution to this concern in the future. 

[1] V-Globe, www.vglob.org

[2] V-Globe, www.vglob.org

[3] Reusable Bags, www.reusablebags.com/news

[4] Reusable Bags, www.reusablebags.com/news