Egyptians’ consumption of single-use plastic bags per capita to be gradually reduced: Minister

CAIRO – 7 August 2022: Egypt targets to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic bags until 2050, announced Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad in a meeting with Prime Minister Moustafa Mabouly on Sunday evening to discuss the national strategy of getting rid of plastic bags.

The government’s concerned ministries (commerce and industry, environment, international cooperation, health, local development, tourism, finance, supply and internal trade) will work on reducing the consumption of plastic bags to 100 bags per capita annually by 2025, and 50 bags per person by 2030, said Fouad.

Fouad reviewed the agreement signed in May between the Egyptian Ministry of Environment, the International Company for Petroleum and Industrial Services “INCOM” and the “Okeanos International” company to establish a joint venture called “Okeanos Egypt” to manufacture alternatives to plastics via using “Made from Stone” technology. As per the new deal, “Okeanos Egypt” project aims at producing plastic based on calcium-carbonate (limestone) technology with an addition to a very small percentage of raw plastic (polypropylene [PP] or polyethylene), a technology that is able to reduce single-use plastics and CO2 emissions, the Egyptian cabinet announced in a statement.

During the Sunday meeting, Tariq Al-Arabi, the Director of the Medical and Electronic Waste Management Project at the Ministry of Environment, said that contacts are being conducted with many international donors to fund projects that help reduce single-use plastic bags and the CO2 footprint and to prepare a database for large, medium and small companies that manufacture alternatives to single-use plastic bags.

He added that the management is cooperating with the concerned NGOs awareness of reducing the use of plastic bags.

Single-use bags intoxicate the land, as most single-use plastic bags take thousands of years to decompose and turn into small plastic particles, which leash toxins in the soil and water. Also, marine life and ecosystems are endangered by plastic particles which are found in a huge number in oceans. Marine animals like whales, dolphins and other rare fish die from eating plastic bags.