Egypt to launch E-Tadweer application to encourage e-waste management

CAIRO – 14 March 2020: Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad said that the expansion in the use of solar panels to generate electricity will result in increased e-waste, which requires a speed response to challenges facing the sustainable management of this waste.

The minister added that appropriate solutions in cooperation with stakeholders and business partners are needed.

She explained that the ministry has started developing legislation to convert the informal sector working in e-waste management into an official sector in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the project for the safe disposal of electronic waste.

Minister Fouad added that a total of seven factors have obtained necessary approvals to safely recycle electronic waste.

She said that efforts are underway to implement E-Tadweer application, which enables citizens to get rid of their e-waste and gain incentives in the form of discount vouchers that can be used in purchasing electrical appliances.

This comes in coincidence with the government’s announced strategy to safely get rid of electronic waste and agriculture leftovers, simultaneously while launching its new solid waste collection system in different governorates.

The Ministry of Environment sets out the strategy in coordination with a number of concerned ministries.

Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad stated that the ministry is working to solve the problem of different types of waste in parallel. She said that the ministry is coordinating with the Ministry of Telecommunications on a strategy to safely get rid of the electronic waste, which will be announced within two months.

As per the new system, citizens will not dispose any old computers, mobile phones or I pads in the trash cans.

“The ministry is keen on launching awareness campaigns to raise public awareness, and provide them with alternatives,” she said, adding that the ministry is coordinating with the Ministry of Health to manage medical waste, where new technologies will substitute burning the waste.

The Egyptian Ministry of Environment previously announced that it will start applying the government’s plan to close the unsafe landfills in Cairo and Giza and change them into facilities of public services.

Late January 2020, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Sharawy confirmed in the Parliament’s plenary session that the ministry allocated LE 12 billion [more than US$ 761 million] to implement a new garbage system. He asserted that the ministry eliminated more than 26 landfills nationwide.

In June 2019, six cities in the Red Sea governorate, southeast Egypt, started to apply measures to limit the use of plastic, namely Hurghada, Safaga, Marsa Alam, Qoseir, RasGhareb and Shalateen.