From the archives: This story was last updated in December 2019.
For Ismael Essome, the path to becoming an internationally renowned environmental activist started on a rainy day. On the way back home from university, he was caught in the heavy tropical monsoon rains of his native Cameroon. “I ran for shelter to wait it out,” he told Deutsche Welle. “That’s when I saw heaps of plastic bottles clogging the bridge. I was shocked.”Becoming aware of the enormity of the problem of plastics clogging the waterways of Douala, the largest city and economic capital of Cameroon, Essome remembers thinking, “surely something can be done with all these bottles.”
