Municipal solid waste management system to be developed

CAIRO – 22 October 2018: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad to review the programs set to develop the municipal solid waste management system.

Fouad remarked that the 2020 new municipal solid waste management system aims to develop the infrastructure through rehabilitating waste dump, and establishing fixed and mobile intermediate stations as well as new sanitary landfills.

She added that the integrated solid waste management system includes collecting, sorting, transporting, and recycling municipal solid waste along with developing the treatment and disposal system to recycle the organic component.

In the same context, the minister of environment reviewed with Madbouly the results of the phone application “Dawar,” recently launched in three districts including Maadi and Torra, to expand it across Egypt.

The phone app allows its users to take a picture of the street containing trash. Upon uploading the picture in the application, Dawar will be able to track the location with GPS and send a specialized team to clean the trash.



Egypt has launched several initiatives to recycle wastes and to solve the garbage problem.

The rubbish that has long polluted the Egyptian streets will be completely removed within three months until the comprehensive cleaning system is applied, spokesman of the Ministry of Local Development Khaled Kassem previously said.

Kassem told Al-Shorouk Newspaper that governors will submit the final studies on the comprehensive cleaning system, pointing out that this system will be applied after the National Waste Management Holding is established and a garbage law, which will be discussed by Parliament in the upcoming round, is issued.

He added that the comprehensive cleaning system aims to collect the piles of rubbish and transfer them to treatment and recycling plants.

An estimated 44.8 percent of Egyptian households dispose their garbage by dumping it onto the street, while 55.2 percent dispose it through private companies and garbage collectors, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

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,” Moqadis said in press remarks.

He further called on the government to support the budding project by sponsoring the purchase of the produced electricity so that it can be applied into different sectors, which will ensure the sustainability of the project.

The project presents plenty of opportunities for the government and municipalities to get rid of solid food leftovers, he added. “Large amounts of electricity will expectedly be extracted akin to the same amount that is generated from the high dam in Aswan.”

The Italian side shall be committed to undertake technical studies meant for the station, and the financial studies needed to obtain the loan floated to the company for the construction of the waste-to-energy plant.

The Italian company will also be entrusted with supervising the construction works and providing in-site workers with job training.

The project aims at segregating solid, organic waste such as plastic and aluminum that can be converted into biogas to be used in different sectors and to be processed to produce electricity according to the amount of organic waste available.