وزير البيئة: تمكين وإشراك القطاع الخاص فى منظومة المخلفات

A new model for involving the private sector in the waste management system, in the presence of the Ministers of Environment and Local Development

Minister of Environment: Investment in cement industry and waste recycling industry gives added value to local Egyptian product that is environmentally compatible

Dr. Manal Awad: The state seeks to involve the private sector in operating and managing infrastructure projects for the solid waste system

Minister of Local Development: The cleanliness file is at the top of the ministry’s priorities to restore the civilized and aesthetic face of Egypt’s governorates

Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, Dr. Manal Awad, Minister of Local Development, Major General Dr. Abdel Fattah Serag, Governor of Sohag, and Dr. Khaled Mahmoud Abdel Halim, Governor of Qena, witnessed the signing ceremony of contracts for the management and operation of waste treatment and recycling plants between the governorates of Qena and Sohag and Misr Cement Group, in the presence of Major General Sayed Abdel Fattah Harhour, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Misr Cement Group, Hassan Gabri, Managing Director and CEO of the Group, Dr. Mohamed Abdel Hadi, Deputy Governor of Sohag, Major General Alaa Abdel Jaber, Secretary General of the Governorate, Mr. Ashraf Anwar, Head of the Local Unit of Nag Hammadi Center and City, Yasser Abdullah, Acting Head of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency, Dr. Hazem Al-Zanan, Director of the National Waste Management Program, Ms. Yasmine Salem, Assistant Minister of Environment for Government Coordination, and Dr. Khaled Qassem, Assistant Minister of Local Development for Institutional Support, in addition to representatives of the waste management units in the concerned governorates.

Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, expressed her happiness at signing contracts for the management and operation of waste treatment and recycling plants in Qena and Sohag governorates through Misr Cement Group, as one of the models of partnership with the private sector in cooperation with partners from the relevant ministries and governorates, and evidence of the success of the experiment in transforming the challenge into an opportunity by entering cement factories as an added value to the municipal solid waste treatment and recycling industry, during the journey of developing and implementing the new waste management system, which began in 2019 with full cooperation between the Ministries of Environment, Local Development, Planning, Finance, Military Production and the Arab Organization for Industrialization as partners in the system, as we started building the system, and our dream was for the private sector to be a partner in managing the system, and encouraging the cement industry to replace the economically and environmentally costly import of coal with a local product of alternative fuel RDF, and this effort results in the participation of a large group such as Misr Cement to manage two factories, one of which was developed through the National Solid Waste Management Program of the Ministry of Environment.

The Minister of Environment pointed out four benefits that can be achieved from this partnership, the first of which is contributing to reducing waste accumulations, which contributes to reducing open burning and spontaneous combustion of waste, which contributes to mitigating global warming emissions and climate change, as well as reducing air pollution and its negative effects on health. The most important factor is achieving the circular economy concept on which the Waste Management Regulation Law was built, as this partnership is a model that translates the true meaning of the circular economy by converting waste into organic fertilizer and alternative fuel.

Dr. Yasmine Fouad added that this partnership demonstrates the possibility of achieving a real partnership between the public and private sectors, and benefiting from the private sector’s capabilities in management and operation in achieving a fair green transformation in Egypt, to be one of multiple partnerships and a long journey in which the private sector is a major partner in the green transformation process, within a participatory process that achieves common gains for all parties, foremost among them the Egyptian citizen by preserving public health.

Dr. Yasmine Fouad explained that this partnership will achieve optimal utilization of treatment and recycling stations, maximize the benefit from the components of municipal solid waste, and produce high-quality organic fertilizer with standard specifications and according to the specifications included in the Egyptian Code, in addition to producing alternative solid fuel RDF with standard specifications, reducing the quantities of waste directed to final disposal sites, eliminating random dumps and open burning practices that pollute the environment, and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions, noting that the Ministry of Environment cooperates with all partners from the concerned ministries in implementing environmentally friendly projects that maintain the efficiency of resource use, including converting waste into energy, expanding the inclusion of the circular economy in industrial facilities gradually to include industrial zones, environmental industrial complexes and green value chains, expanding the environmental sanitation system for facilities, encouraging them to correct their environmental status, in addition to completing the implementation of the infrastructure for the waste management system (removing accumulations – establishing intermediate stations – establishing waste recycling plants – establishing sanitary landfills), and completing operating contracts for collection, transportation and street cleaning services with the aim of increasing the efficiency of collecting municipal solid waste.

For her part, Dr. Manal Awad, Minister of Local Development, confirmed that signing these contracts to operate and manage waste factories in Qena and Sohag comes within the framework of the integrated management system for solid municipal waste, which was approved by His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
It was implemented in 2019 in a strategic partnership between the Ministries of Local Development, Environment, Planning, Military Production, and the Arab Organization for Industrialization.

The Minister of Local Development praised the level of cooperation and coordination between the Ministry and the Ministry of Environment to follow up on the infrastructure projects for the waste system in the governorates with regard to recycling and treatment plants, fixed and mobile intermediate stations, and safe sanitary landfills.

Dr. Manal Awad explained that the Ministry is keen to involve the national private sector in operating and managing waste infrastructure projects to benefit from all the investments pumped by the state over the past years into the new system and to encourage the specialized private sector to maximize the benefit from the system’s assets to produce both (RDF refuse fuel and improved organic fertilizer) and reduce final rejects, reaching the economic management of the system’s assets and achieving environmental sanitation.

The Minister of Local Development stressed the interest she has given since assuming responsibility to the waste file and improving the level of cleanliness in all governorates and restoring the civilized and aesthetic face of Egypt’s governorates again, and completing all infrastructure projects in the remaining governorates targeted in the current fiscal year in a way that benefits all citizens.

For his part, the Governor of Sohag thanked Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, and Dr. Manal Awad, Minister of Local Development, for the support provided to Sohag Governorate, not only financial support, but also technical support, as this support contributed to an unprecedented positive change in the capabilities and skills of the work team in the governorate, and the work systems that are used, whether planning systems or follow-up systems, which was evident in the implementation of projects that have been completed or are being established in the governorate.

“Serag” pointed out that Sohag Governorate is currently moving towards managing municipal solid waste to maximize its economic benefit, and reduce the resulting environmental pollution from the perspective of integrated management with multiple aspects and components, and interconnected links, each link of which depends on the previous one, in an integrated system that begins with the process of collecting garbage and removing it from the streets and sorting the waste and ends with the process of recycling it and benefiting from it, noting that this has already been implemented through the establishment of a recycling plant and a sanitary landfill in Sohag, which has an area of ​​10.5 acres at a total cost of 93.5 million pounds with a production capacity of 20 tons/hour and serves the centers (Dar Al-Salam – Girga – Al-Balina). The production line converts garbage and waste into organic fertilizer through a Korean production line and RdF separation… as well as a sanitary landfill on an area of ​​5 acres at a cost of 20 million pounds.

For his part, Dr. Khaled Abdel Halim, Governor of Qena, said that today we are about to sign a contract to manage and operate the mechanical and biological treatment unit at the waste treatment and recycling plant in Nag Hammadi, which is material evidence of the state’s seriousness in promoting the green circular economy and achieving sustainable development.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Halim added that the governorate sought, with the support of the Ministry of Environment through the National Solid Waste Management Program, to work on increasing the operational capacity of the factory to meet the service area in Nag Hammadi, and a sorting line with a capacity of 20 tons/hour was supplied and installed, as part of the state’s orientation to operate economic facilities through the private sector. A bid was launched on May 4, 2024, and the award was made to Qena Management and Maintenance Company, affiliated with the Misr Cement Company in Qena.

The Governor of Qena expressed his sincere thanks to all those who contributed to achieving this accomplishment, from the government agencies represented by (the Ministry of Environment – the Ministry of Local Development – the National Solid Waste Management Program and its consultants and the Solid Waste Management Department in the governorate), and he specifically mentioned Major General Ashraf Al-Dawoudi, the former Governor of Qena – who overcame all difficulties and provided all support to complete this proposal and award it.

Meanwhile, Major General A.H. Sayed Abdel Fattah Harhour, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Misr Cement Group, stressed Misr Cement Group’s keenness to be at the forefront of the initiative to participate in this system by contracting Qena Management and Maintenance Company – one of Misr Cement Group’s companies; to manage and operate the non-hazardous waste treatment and recycling plant in both Sohag and Qena Governorates; which contributes to preserving the investments pumped by the state over the past years and ensuring the optimal use of equipment, recycling lines and necessary maintenance procedures for them, pointing out the diligent work to accelerate the pace of green transformation by expanding reliance on renewable energy and clean waste transportation, which contributes to reducing emissions and creating a clean and sustainable environment, and advancing the integrated waste management system.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Misr Cement Group pointed out that signing the contracts for this partnership comes within the framework of the group’s efforts to reduce the cost of producing a ton of cement by finding an alternative to fossil fuels, by using municipal waste resulting from non-hazardous waste recycling stations, in compliance with the directives of the Ministry of Environment issued in 2020 regarding the necessity of replacing 10% of the primary fuel with municipal waste, adding that this contract will result in increasing the participation of the private sector in benefiting from recycling waste in cement factories and safe disposal of waste, as well as extracting materials of economic value to produce alternative fuel derived from solid municipal waste (RDF).

He extended his sincere thanks and appreciation to Her Excellency the Minister of Environment, Dr. Yasmine Fouad, for the Ministry’s efforts in removing all obstacles and challenges facing investors in this field, especially cement companies, as well as the cooperation between the Ministry of Environment and Local Development in activating the integrated waste management system, which is based in its most important axes on developing the infrastructure of the recycling and treatment system, through the Ministry’s success in offering the management and operation of waste factories to national private sector companies.

The treatment and recycling plant was opened in Nag Hammadi Center in Qena after upgrading its efficiency through the inputs of the National Solid Waste Management Program of the Ministry of Environment, where a treatment and recycling line was supplied and installed to produce organic fertilizer and alternative fuel RDF with a capacity of 400 tons per day to serve the centers of Abu Tesht, Farshout, Nag Hammadi, Al-Waqf and the neighboring villages, which also includes the supply and installation of a bag opening machine, a rotary sieve and an air separator, as the bag opening machine facilitates the separation processes by the rotary sieve and the production of alternative fuel by the air separator. The Nag Hammadi plant is located on an area of ​​5 acres and aims to reduce the volume of waste that will be disposed of in the designated landfill site. The Dar Al-Salam Treatment and Recycling Plant in Sohag, which covers an area of ​​11 acres and has a capacity of 320 tons/day using Korean technology, was also delivered to serve the city of Dar Al-Salam in Sohag.

Minister of Environment