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YAOUNDE. — Cameroonian footballing hero Roger Milla, the oldest goalscorer in World Cup history, is taking on an even bigger challenge in a very different field — turning plastic waste into building materials.

The man named the best African player of the 20th century last year embarked on a quest to resolve Cameroon’s massive plastic waste problem.

With plastic bags and bottles routinely cast away in the central African country, the waste clogs up rivers, litters roads and blocks gutters.

“We launched this project to fight pollution and create jobs for unemployed youngsters,” Milla, who is now 63, said.

The problem has become so bad that in 2014 the government banned “the making, importing, selling or distribution of non-biodegradable plastic packaging”.

But some producers resisted, and earlier this month 100 tonnes of plastic packaging were illegally produced and seized in Cameroon’s largest city Douala. Milla, who rose to international fame in the late eighties and early nineties for his trademark goal celebration of a dance by the corner flag, is now creating a new band of followers. — AFP.