Umuganda, a Kinyarwanda word that translates as “coming together in common purpose,” is the name of the monthly community cleanup held on the last Saturday of every month. It is noted that this holistic community effort to clean up the country “is one reason that Rwanda is renowned in Africa for its cleanliness.”
"It's compulsory for all able-bodied people ages 18 to 65, and the president and Cabinet members pitch in, too, for this monthly community service."
GARBAGE COLLECTION:
As of recently, there is a strict garbage collection system in place, trash is collected once a week and each household pays 2000 Rwf per month, while companies pay around 10,000 Rwf public cleaning Tax per month, to ensure sustainable cleanliness in the City & the country.
One simple step made a huge difference, according to the United Nations Environment Programme: banning the use of single-use plastic bags in 2008. This was spurred by a study commissioned by the #Rwandan Ministry of Environment, which found that plastic bags posed a serious threat to agricultural production and contaminated the water, killing fish and causing pollution.
Rwanda didn’t stop with single-use plastic grocery bags. The country also banned plastic packaging materials. Today, Rwandans use bags made from other biodegradable sources, including paper, cloth, banana leaves, and papyrus.
“increasing forest cover to 35 percent of total land area by 2022,” per the World Economic Forum. To achieve this, the country has undertaken massive reforestation and tree-planting efforts. Additionally, new measures such as “agro-forestry” and “training schemes in forest management” are being implemented. Together with the plastic-bag ban, these initiatives helped Rwanda receive a Future Policy Award from World Future in 2011.
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