Did you have to sing that song in school? We did. It gets stuck in my head all the time now.

It went like this (I think—I’m notorious for mixing up song lyrics):

My silent goaty oaty oaty oaty oaty

Was doing fine ine ine ine ine

He ate three shirty irty irty irty irties

Off my back line ine ine ine ine

Or something like that.

Here in Ghana we could sing:

He ate three rubbers ubbers ubbers ubbers ubbers

From in the gutter utter utter utter utter utter

Or something like that.

Either way, the goats choke. And in the second way, so does the environment.

In her article about the problem in Burkina Faso, Emily Bowers wrote:

“Here, women were worried about the mysterious deaths of their goats. When they realized their animals were munching on the plastic bags and dying shortly after, they decided to do something to clean up the filth.”

Who wants to eat “Aponkye Nkrakra” (goat light soup) flavoured with plastic bags?

Maybe that’s why I don’t like the taste of goat: it’s the plastic.

Trashy Bags in Accra where plastic is recycled into brilliant, handmade bags and purses.

Also, check out the Fantastic in Plastic video from Trashy Bags.

This is a photo of a young woman in Bolgatanga making recycled pure water and cloth Bolga baskets which you can also find at Trashy Bags.