Ministry of Environment Renews Effort to Tackle Ongoing Garbage Crisis

By: Sara Mohamed
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Black plastic bags containing food leftovers and vegetable peelings were heaped on a nearby street corner. A moldy liquid oozes out, mixing with the chicken bones and yellowed newspapers that lay on one of Egypt’s garbage mounds. For a Cairo resident, the sight and smell of heaping garbage is not a shock, but still undesirable.

Egypt’s ministerial cabinet approved the establishment of a waste holding company on September 27 during a hearing by the parliament’s local administration committee.

The company will be responsible for collecting, transporting and recycling of trash with the cooperation of the government.

In a televised interview with journalist Amr Abdelhamid, Egypt’s Minister of Environment Khaled Fahmy said that the budget required to solve Egypt’s garbage crisis would range from EGP 20 to 22 billion over five or six years of investment.

“The waste holding company is a tool to solve the problem, but not a solution to it,” said Fahmy.

Salah El-Haggar, professor of energy and sustainable development at AUC, confirmed that the number of solid household wastes reaches 28 million ton per year in Egypt, with more than half of it disposed on the streets and ineligible landfills.

“The problem will not be solved without establishing an economic entity and a national industry that is based on the collection, transport and treatment of the garbage,” Fahmy said.

The holding company will only be made active after the government establishes a waste strategy that will take into account each governorate’s waste conditions, Amal Taha, head of environmental awareness department in Egypt, told The Caravan.

“The disorganization of garbage bags disposed from houses,” is the main reason for the garbage crisis, she added.

“If the garbage collectors find trash sorted into sections, they won’t have to throw the garbage on the streets when collecting their daily solid recyclables. This neglected rubbish on the street is what keeps the crisis continuing.”

This was confirmed by El-Haggar, who cited the lack of effective waste management as the most debilitating factor in Egypt’s garbage crisis.

“There is a random waste management problem in Egypt and it needs supervision … The garbage collectors only choose the solid household wastes that benefit them and ignore the useless trash on the streets,” he said.

Taha told The Caravan that a shift in people’s behaviors is necessary for progress and to solve the ongoing garbage crisis.

“If waste regulations are properly applied in Egypt, people will think twice before they throw garbage on the streets.”

She said that waste regulations include paying a fine ranging from EGP 1000 to EGP 5000 if any type of waste is thrown in public roads or waterways.

However, these laws are rarely enforced.

In 2003, the Egyptian government contracted with foreign companies to manage Cairo’s garbage collection.

Janitors would rubbish bags from buildings and placed them in large bins, which the trucks later picked up.

“The only company we’re contracting with now is called AMA Arab Environment Company (AAEC). The contract will terminate by the end of 2017 and we will not renew the contract with them,” Taha said.

The main reason for the failure of the involvement of foreign companies in Egypt’s cleaning system is that any disagreement in any matter would lead to international arbitration, she added.

“The foreign companies were applying the western mindset instead of actually studying the conditions of the garbage crisis in Egypt and help resolve it. “

The garbage crisis has also resulted in what some perceive to be unequal taxation.

“At that time, we were forced to pay extra EGP 5 on our electricity bills and that was because I lived in Nasr City, while my sister in Abbasiya used to pay EGP 3 only,” said Hala Bayoumi, 52, a housewife.

According to Bayoumi, a case was filed against the government at that time, as citizens thought the government did not have the right to a garbage collection fees.

She explained that the public lacked awareness of the urgency of the garbage problem.

“I was glad that the government was actually putting some effort to engage us to solve the garbage problem. Even if I was forced to pay the money, I was aware that we’re facing a garbage issue in our country,” Bayoumi told The Caravan.

In March, an initiative called “Sell Your Garbage” was launched  as an alternative method of tackling the garbage crisis.

Two kiosks in Heliopolis encouraged citizens to sort their garbage and dispense their solid household wastes in exchange for cash.

Kiosk banners revealed that the rate paid per kilogram for each solid recyclable depending on the material of the item; cans and cardboards cost EGP 9 and EGP 1 per kilogram, respectively.

“The garbage collectors are also part of the original team in this project, but they are currently not enough to face the garbage problem in Cairo alone,” project founder Nadia Henry told Ahram Online.

The garbage collectors, or El-Zabaleen, are people whose lives solely rely on collecting trash and transporting it to the “Garbage City” where they sort the garbage in workshops to produce valuable recycled products.