In 2020, the Senegalese government banned plastic products in a bid to reduce plastic pollution. However, the country is finding it difficult to enforce it.

This is because Senegal, like many developing countries, struggles to manage its plastic waste. This is partially attributed to its large population size (about 17 million), most of whom live on the coast.

Relatively small in size, the country is one of the top plastic polluters of the world’s oceans and is projected to produce over 700,000 metric tons of plastic waste by 2025 if the trend persists.

Plastic waste, aside from the potential to contaminate agricultural land, is clogging up the ocean waters and is damaging fishing stocks, leading to a decrease in income for the Senegalese fishermen who already bear the burden of over-fished waters.

One would think that with the continued use of plastic products and the failed attempts by the government to enforce the plastic ban, Senegal would be left to drown in its self-induced plastic-saturated ecosystem. But one man is making all the difference by ridding Dakar, the capital of Senegal, of the scourge of plastics. His name is Modou Fall, popularly called ‘Plastic Man’.

Modou Fall is a familiar sight in Dakar who is always dressed head to toe in plastics. He is always seen clad in a multicolored cape and a hat — both made entirely of plastic bags — waving the Senegalese flag and carrying a loudspeaker from which songs relaying the damage caused by plastic can be heard.

His unique costume is inspired by the “Kankurang ” which is a traditional figure in the Senegalese culture that is believed to dispel evil spirits and teach communal values.

Modou can often be seen dancing through the streets with a sign on his chest that reads “NO PLASTIC BAGS”.

He dedicates his time and resources to educating the Senegalese people about the dangers of plastic waste, seizing every chance he gets to lecture people about environmental issues.

Modou’s interest in plastic waste did not just begin. He has been fighting against plastic waste for most of his adult life.

After his father died when he was 4, his mother moved the family to the suburbs where she ran a restaurant and struggled to make ends meet as a single mother.

After six years of primary education, he left school to support the family, taking jobs in metalworking and house painting. He joined the army after his mother’s death and that was where he first noticed the damaging effects of plastics.

He was stationed in rural eastern Senegal, home to many herding communities, where he saw their cows getting sick after consuming the fragments of plastic bags that littered the arid landscape. The herders would slaughter their valuable animals before they inevitably died.

Modou sold T-shirts and lifebuoys at Sandaga market, Dakar, after his military service. He observed that the goods that the traders displayed were often packed in plastic bags because plastics were cheap and almost everywhere.

What bothered Modou was the way the traders were oblivious to the environmental hazards that were the used plastic bags that they tossed with reckless abandon.

Modou spent months trying to educate these traders about the environmental threat of plastics but all his attempts were futile and the market continued to house plastic waste.

Tired of the whole thing, he decided to take another approach — lead by example. He decided to clean up the entire market on his own. Even though it took Modou 13 days, he was able to accomplish it.

Although the plastics eventually returned, Modou had succeeded in making some of the traders rethink their actions.

His interest in ending plastic waste grew from that moment on. Little wonder, in 2006, Modou used his life savings to found Senegal Propre (Clean Senegal).

Through Clean Senegal, he planted trees across the Dakar. He also held community meetings to convince people to do away with plastic and organized cleaning and tire recycling campaigns with a team of waste pickers in the busiest neighborhoods in the city.

Clean Senegal made public benches, bricks, and paving stones with the plastic waste they collected. The old tires that they collected were converted to couches and these were sold and the proceeds channeled towards more environmental projects like tree planting at schools. Seeing the positive impact of Moudou’s efforts, other traders soon joined in.

Modou Fall’s story is one of many that capture the importance of believing in a cause and sticking through it. His efforts have set the tone for others to follow.

Saving the planet can come in different forms – from the littlest of efforts to the grandest of gestures. What matters is that we all do what we can to effect change in our environment.