Over the last ten years levels of plastic packaging use has exploded in Africa, even in remote rural areas like Mazvihwa. Here the culture of waste disposal was based mainly of three kinds of recycling. First most items of leather, metal, cloth and rubber would be repaired and patched continuously, and broken or worn out items cannibalized to repair others, until more or less completely worn out when they would be hoarded for possible re-used some day or left in pits for burial. Second, flammable items would be dried and burned and the ashes incorporated into composts and manures. Third, that fraction of organic waste that could not be eaten by livestock would be left in a pit to compost or rot, and/or used in combination with animal manures to fertilize agricultural lands. When plastics came into the area people did not know how to treat the waste, with some burying it, others just accumulating it, and some deciding to burn it and combine it with organic waste as an agricultural input. No-one, including rural health workers was sure which was the best approach, although many were concerned at the aesthetic and other pollution occurring and the noxious smells on burning.
