Swiss manufacturer of composite carton packaging SIG (Neuhausen; www.sig.biz/en), Canadian social recycling enterprise Plastic Bank (Vancouver, British Columbia; www.plasticbank.com), and the German society of international cooperation GIZ (Bonn; www.giz.de/en) have partnered for a recycling project in Egypt to boost recycling and improve the livelihoods of 1,000 locals.

According to the groups, there is at present no formalised system for waste collection and recycling in Egypt. The country currently collects 60% of the more than 95 mn t of waste it generates annually, they noted.

With only 20% of the collected waste being properly disposed of or recycled, the partners have launched a three-year initiative to establish a reclaim system for waste including beverage cartons in the Greater Cairo Region and beyond.

The partnership aims to collect 700 t of beverage cartons as it focuses on reducing the environmental impact and creating a market for recycled paper.

Plastic Bank said it developed a proprietary blockchain-secured platform that enables communities to collect end-of-life waste materials and trade them in for currency via an app that provides traceability and transparency. Workers exchange the collected plastics at a Plastic Bank branch for currency. The collected waste is processed into the company’s so-called social plastics feedstock for reuse in products and packaging.

Related: Plastic Bank wants plastics waste rated as a resource

The partnership expects around 1,000 local waste collection members to log each collected product into the blockchain platform through Plastic Bank’s app, earning money and incentives deposited into their digital wallets.

The project is supported by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s develoPPP funding program and Decent Work for a Just Transition initiative. It aligns with the Egypt Waste Management Regulatory Authority’s goal to incorporate recycling into the legislative framework.

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