Waste management in Egypt

In Egypt, waste and lack of proper management of it pose serious health and environmental problems for the country and its population.

For instance, in Cairo this method involved migrants from rural areas in Egypt who rode donkey carts around the city to collect garbage, then bring it to a North-Eastern district, where others then helped sort it.

[5] 2003-2004: The Egyptian government signed contracts with private, international companies to handle the garbage collection in a more efficient and formal way.

Here the garbage is either also left on the streets or collected and then is thrown in the desert, dumpsites and even in different canals and the Nile River, which has health consequences.

[2] In Egypt solid waste is currently disposed of in dump sites has an indispensable potential for recycling, processing, or reuse.

[7] Up to 40% of Egypt's generated waste is not operated by public or private institutions, but placed in streets, rivers, lakes, drainage channels or illegal dumping sites.

[9] The improper disposal of solid waste pollutes air, water and soil, and compromises public and animal health.

[9] Up until 2018, the Egyptian government had been giving little attention to solid waste management, public health and environmental protection.

Instead of establishing a unified governmental force to improve the waste management process, authority was dispersed among ministries.

[10] The community, mostly settled in Cairo's ward Manshiyat Naser in the so-called Moqattam Garbage City, has witnessed decades of marginalization.

[11] In the early 2000s, the Egyptian government under Mubarak decided to place household waste collection in the hands of the international companies.

For instance, in 2013 did the Ministry of Environment launch a national campaign, which focused on improving how garbage is collected, transported and recycled.

[5] A concrete example of this is the latest National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) of Egypt, which includes investment packages regarding waste management that was proposed to the private sector.

One of these packages proposed consumers in higher-income areas to bring waste such as plastics and tins to supermarket chains in order to get a coupon to be used in the stores.

The formal sector in Egypt comprises central government, local municipalities and ministries, small enterprises, international donors and NGOs.

In March 2017, the government adopted a 'Sell your garbage' scheme where kiosks are set up across the city for people to deposit sorted waste.

[19] Bekia is another organisation that exchanges solid waste for basic goods such as phone credits, groceries or metro tickets.

The organisations utilise technology, with users sending a WhatsApp message with their location to drivers who come and collect at a suitable time.

[25] Additionally, Shehata al-Moqadis, head of the Garbage Collectors union, inked a memorandum of understanding on May 21 with an Italian company to build a waste recycling plant.

'The new project aims at running a waste-to-energy plant with a capacity of 600-1100 tons per day that can be used to generate electricity or to produce gas'" [12] Another scheme supported by the World Bank Group has involved removing up to 40,000 old taxis from the streets of Cairo.

[26] According to a study,[27] life expectancy for Egyptians decreases by 1.85 years due to the level of air pollution, one of the worst ranked in the world.

Breath Life estimates there are 67,283 annual deaths from air pollution, with the leading cause being Ischemic heart disease.

Close to industrial discharges and cities the water is quite polluted, but more generally the river holds a high dilution factor.

Additionally, every October and November, farmers burn their rice straw in the Delta districts causing a thick black smoke cloud to descend over the city.

This has a number of health impacts for residents and makes the air harmful to breath, whilst also eroding the precious historical monuments in the city.