Hand over your phone for a discount in Egypt's national e-waste initiative

Record ID: 1640444

  • Title: Hand over your phone for a discount in Egypt's national e-waste initiative
  • Date: 7th October 2021
  • Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (FILE - AUGUST 30, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RAYA COMPANY WORKERS LOADING E-WASTE ONTO TRUCK OLD TELEVISION ON TRUCK CAIRO, EGYPT (FILE - AUGUST 26, 2021) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF EGYPTIAN ELECTRONICS RECYCLING COMPANY WORKER PUSHING CART E-WASTE VARIOUS OF MEN AT WORK IN RECYCLING PLANT E-WASTE / WORKER SORTING WASTE VARIOUS OF WORKERS DISMANTLING DEVICES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GENERAL MANAGER OF EGYPTIAN ELECTRONICS RECYCLING COMPANY, AHMED SALEM, SAYING: "The hazard is in the battery, so we collect them in boxes and bury them in al-Nasiriya in Alexandria at the end of each month. It is a safe and healthy location, because we currently cannot recycle lithium batteries unfortunately. We therefore bury them in a location approved by the ministry of environment. After that, we get the most important pieces that include precious metals." GOLD AND SILVER EXTRACTED FROM E-WASTE MACHINE PROCESSING E-WASTE VARIOUS OF WORKERS OPERATING MACHINES WORKER HOLDING PIECE OF PAPER WITH COPPER POWDER ON IT
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2021 15:23
  • Keywords: E-Tadweer Egypt Environment Waste
  • Location: CAIRO, EGYPT
  • City: CAIRO, EGYPT
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Environment,Middle East
  • Reuters ID: LVA005EY5TZYT
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A new initiative in Egypt offers incentives to citizens to hand over their old electronic devices for recycling in an attempt to minimize the harmful impact of its unsafe management.
    'E-Tadweer', launched in June this year after Egypt passed a new law for waste management in 2020, connects citizens with e-waste collection points at branches of Raya and Vodafone, two private sector telecommunications companies, who in turn move the discarded devices to recycling centres.
    The initiative also allows users to log their old devices into a special application and get discount vouchers for a variety of products as an incentive.
    Nearly 90,000 tonnes of e-waste are produced annually within the country of 100 million people. They are usually handled by garbage collectors in the informal sector who keep the recyclable parts of electronics and haphazardly discard the rest.
    This poses a serious environmental and public health threat due to contamination caused by hazardous minerals.
    Ten factories are currently licensed to recycle e-waste and more factories are expected to receive new licenses, the environment ministry said.
    The project is carried out by the Egyptian ministry of environment with the collaboration of the United Nations Development Programme and a number of private sector companies.
    (Production: Sherif Fahmy, Mohammed Zaki, Mai Shams El-Din)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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