Sharpened Sense

Yesterday's newspaper is today's pencil for Wada Kealotswe, the young innovative female entrepreneur in Botswana turning reading matter into writing tools. And she has already sold over 70,000 pencils.

- ALASTAIR HAGGER

IN SETSWANA, THE NATIVE language of Botswana, there is a typically evocative proverb that goes: Dilo makwati re kwatabolola mo go ba bangwe – Sharing knowledge is like the stripping of bark from a tree to pass to others.

Though digital news-sharing has now become the norm throughout Africa, the traditional newspaper is still widely consumed as an important news source. But the damage its production entails is literal, not figurative: for every ton of newspaper, 12 trees are destroyed.

We strip the bark, we share the knowledge – but we damage a world that should be made immeasurably richer and safer through our accumulation of that knowledge.

Many modern economies routinely recycle paper so that industries which utilize this material can be less reliant on wood pulp, but widespread and effective waste recycling remains atypical in the developing world.

The UN Environment Programme laments that Africa is currently recycling only 4% of its waste, describing this failure as “a far cry from the African Union vision that African cities will be recycling at least 50 per cent of the waste they generate by 2023”. Given that an estimated 7080% of Africa’s MSW (municipal solid waste) is recyclable, this shortfall is as alarming as it seems avoidable.