Dr. Mamdouh Khalil, a professor of environmental sciences at Cairo University, told Al-Shorfa there is currently a waste disposal crisis in Egypt, because of the lack of waste recycling plants.
According to Khalil, a culture of recycling and re-utilising waste is almost non-existent in Egyptian society. The Egyptian government will face this same issue as many other governments in the region. Khalil said that if waste were properly utilized, it could supply 35 percent of the raw materials used in local Egyptian production.
Maged Boulos, a pollution monitor with Egypt’s Environment Ministry, reportedly said Cairo produces nearly 10 tons of garbage each day, 13 percent of the garbage Egypt produces daily. Boulos described recent government moves to improve national waste disposal, such as the creation of a Solid Waste Agency, a new government body dedicated to addressing the waste crisis. It has now been charged with repairing, increasing and managing the nation’s recycling facilities, currently numbered at 65. Boulos said harvesting the resources in waste, through recycling and waste management, could create over one million Egyptian jobs.
Image of recyclable waste in the Sinai, Egypt, via Shutterstock
Read more about recycling in the Middle East:
High Waste Generation and Low Level Recycling in Iran
Lebanon Launches New Recycling Campaign, “Think Before You Throw”
Recycling Tires Can Rid Egypt Of Fumes, Mosquitoes And Rats
Author: Leigh Cuen
Leigh Cuen is a freelance journalist currently reporting from Israel. She has written for the Earth Island Journal, the San Francisco Public Press, the Palestinian News Network, J. weekly newspaper and the Women News Network. Follow her @La__Cuen.
Bravo Dr. Khalil and Maged Boulos! Hopefully, other nations will act with equal decisiveness, then life on Earth may actually survive.