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Cameroon: Making a Living out of Empty Mineral Water Bottles
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
25 February 2008
Posted to the web 25 February 2008
Effa Tambenkongho
Almost every liquid product in Douala is sold in empty mineral water bottles.
If one would stroll down the streets or even in the markets in Douala, one would realise almost every liquid product is sold in used mineral water bottles. From palm oil, groundnut oil, kerosene, petrol, drinkable water, among other things. It was not so before, but since brewery companies changed packaging of their products such that they could be reused it just eased the public. This is because some people have been able to make a living out of the used bottles. The empty bottles are sold to market sellers who in turn pour their products inside and sell to customers.
In the Nkololun market, talking to CT, Tamna Kamga Pierre Paul said the bottles are bought from people who go to garbage cans to pick them. They are bought at a reduced rate and sold at a higher price to make some profit. The empty bottles which are 1.5 litres when very old are sold three for 100FCFA. But the new ones are sold at 50FCFA per bottle.
The unfortunate situation is the hygienic condition of the bottles. The mother who buys has no trouble of making it fit to be reused. It is the task of the person who has to reuse the bottles to make sure the bottles are disinfected before using them.
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CT also spoke to Chaudel Christian who sells cold drinkable water in the market. As a user, he said he gets his bottles from a hotel in Akwa. He said he has a partner who brings them to him at the end of every month. He buys the bigger bottles for 25FCFA. According to him when the bottles are old he throws them away. He said there are some people who buy old bottles from him directly and he said he sells them at a giveaway price. According to him some people are very dishonest, they pretend to buy drinkable water from him and instead use the bottle to measure groundnut oil before bringing it back to him. It is dangerous to buy products in these bottles because only fewer persons care about the hygienic condition before putting it to use again.
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