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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Caitlin Kelly in Bijilo, the Gambia

‘It is ambitious, but ambition builds the world’: can the Gambia’s bold plan to cut plastic pollution work?

A woman picks through waste at a huge landfill rubbish site
A waste-picker collects plastic rubbish at Bakoteh dump, Serekunda, the largest landfill site in the Gambia, November 2024. All photographs by Caitlin Kelly Photograph: Caitlin Kelly

Travelling through the Gambia, it is hard to avoid the makeshift dumpsites burning along the roadsides, filling the air with toxic fumes. Outside the tourist areas, beaches and waterways are littered with plastic rubbish.

The Gambia has long acknowledged it has a problem with plastic. For nearly a decade, it has attempted to solve it through legislation, including an anti-littering law in 2007 and a ban on plastic bags in 2015.

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