Head of the Waste Management Regulatory Authority in an exclusive interview with Homat Al-Earth magazine

Head of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency in an exclusive interview withEarth Guards magazine

AFor Professor Dr. Tariq Al-Arabi:

• The agency sought to draw a comprehensive vision and effective management.
• We produce 25 million tons – annually – of waste.
• The Abu Rawash energy project is one of 17 projects that Egypt seeks to establish.
• We are now working on developing biomechanical recycling plants.

The issuance of Law No. (202) of 2020 – regulating waste management – was a cornerstone for establishing a clear legislative framework and defining the roles and tasks assigned to the waste management regulatory body. The latter would be a monitoring and follow-up entity, and would work to organize processes related to waste management centrally and locally. Therefore, Hamat Al-Earth magazine held this dialogue with Professor Dr. Tariq Al-Arabi – head of the agency – with a desire to learn about the latest technologies in this field.. So here are the lines of the dialogue.

We have all known about the existence of the field of waste management for 25 years,At the beginning of the dialogue, we wanted to know the assessment of the head of the waste management agency for this field, who said: The field of waste management has existed for a long time, and people know how to benefit from waste and how to recycle it, but it was a field that lacked organization – in terms of the roles and responsibilities of actors, as well as the public sector and the private sector – and lack Determining the appropriate method, and it also needs instructional guides.

As for the law regulating waste management, Al-Arabi detailed its content, which was dividing waste into two parts, the first: non-hazardous waste, and the other: hazardous waste. The first section includes municipal solid waste, agricultural waste, demolition and construction waste, and non-hazardous industrial waste. The other section includes: medical waste, hazardous industrial waste, such as electronic, chemical and petroleum waste. Here he clarified that what is meant by hazardous waste is that which contains any of the characteristics of danger, such as toxicity, reactivity, corrosion, and other hazardous chemical characteristics.

In the same context, the head of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency said: The Waste Management Regulatory Law made the Agency the competent authority to issue licenses for workers in non-hazardous waste, and as for hazardous waste, its matter was entrusted to the authority concerned with such waste. The Ministry of Health, for example, is the body responsible for issuing licenses related to the treatment and recycling of medical waste, and the Ministry of Communications is also concerned with the recycling of electronic waste, and also for petroleum waste, its licenses go back to the Ministry of Petroleum. All of this is after the approval of the Waste Regulatory and Management Authority, which is the highest authority concerned with this matter in accordance with the law.

After that, we moved to His Excellency’s question about the benefit that accrues to Egypt from treating electronic wastein light of the concept of integrated management. Here, the head of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency said: It has spread among people how important this electronic waste is after we said that it is a treasure, but the matter took the wrong path, as many people – before the establishment of the device – deliberately mixed electronic waste with chemicals. To extract its treasures, which are represented by 17 types of metals, such as gold and aluminium.

As a result, the head of the Waste Management Regulatory Authority confirmed that there is a reservation about stating the importance of this type of waste, which is considered an urban mine. Drawing attention to a negative aspect of the process of treating electronic waste, which is that 2% of this waste is considered hazardous, or even extremely dangerous, material. This risk requires a license. To ensure that industry-specific guidelines are followed; To protect its workers from dangerous substances such as mercury, cadmium, and other substances that cause the spread of cancer, mental retardation, fetal deformity, as well as diseases of the nervous system.

Al-Arabi then went on to discuss the ideal method that should be followed in the safe disposal of these highly dangerous wastes, such as burning in incinerators of a certain temperature. Pointing out that the old system consisted of burning these wastes at 1200 degrees, as it was believed that this amount of heat would be sufficient to melt and break down these wastes, but after that they would rise through the chimney of the incinerator, and then – due to conditions that helped to reconstitute them again – these materials would cool and remain suspended in the air.

Therefore, Dr. Tariq Al-Arabi indicated that the optimal scientific method is to cool the exhaust resulting from the combustion process with liquid nitrogen. To reach approximately 70 degrees in record time. Which prevents the formation of these substances again.

In general, the head of the Waste Management Regulatory Authority confirmed that the informal sector does not mind treating this waste using special equipment and devices, but the fear of bureaucracy was the biggest challenge among members of this sector, when they seek to obtain a license or request consultant advice. Therefore, the device worked to overcome this challenge by providing technical support, and as a result, we have 26 electronic waste recycling factories benefiting from this support, and about 6 factories in the field of battery recycling.

Then we moved the dialogue to discussing the positive results achieved by the device,Among them is the Abu Rawash energy project; We asked His Excellency about the nature and purpose of this project? To answer this question, Al-Arabi quickly referred to Egypt’s strategy for collecting waste. He explained that the percentage of this collection at the beginning was approximately 55%, and now this strategy aims to increase the percentage of waste collection until it reaches 95% by the year 2026. He also pointed out that the percentage of waste that was sent to its landfills was about 80%, stressing that the strategy followed now seeks to reduce this percentage to 20%. The reason for the high percentage of waste sent to landfills – in the past – was attributed to the lack of factories for recycling and treating such waste.

Regarding the amount of production of this waste, Dr. Tarek El-Arabi stated that we – in Egypt – produce an amount of 25 million tons – annually – of waste, noting that 60% of this waste goes to biological mechanical treatment plants, 20% goes to energy production, and another 20% goes to the field of new technologies, such as the production of green hydrogen and biodiesel.

Then Al-Arabi’s talk became more and more about the Abu Rawash energy project, which – as an energy production project – is considered a support for the governorates that do not have a desert backland, especially since we do not have suitable places to bury waste, and this is in addition to being a promising project in promoting the shift towards alternative energy, such as using the energy resulting from waste instead of using gas to generate electricity.

He also added that the Abu Rawash energy project is one of 17 projects that Egypt seeks to establish in this field, and the idea began in 2019, after which more than 90 international companies applied for this project, of which – in addition to some national companies – 19 companies qualified.

Then we had a pause with the processes of producing alternatives to plastic bags, as it is a major goal of Egypt’s Vision 2030, and our question was about the most important state policies and legislation to stimulate Egyptian society in this field? Al-Arabi responded by saying: The name of the law – Waste Management Regulation – is also the name of the device, and these wastes include hazardous ones, and the work of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency revolves around issuing licenses to practice the activity, approvals and permits related to the import of these materials, and notifications related to transporting them across borders, and all of this depends on the type of waste and the resulting treatment operations.

Dr. Tariq Al-Arabi drew attention to the fact that the device’s work does not stop at single-use plastic bags only, but rather includes all single-use plastic products. And this is before he pointed out that the law and its regulations direct against distributing plastic bags for free, and that the situation before the issuance of this law was limited to implementing a strategy developed by the Ministry of the Environment to reduce plastic bags, the percentage of whose production in the formal sector reached 14 billion bags annually.

Regarding the danger of using plastic bags, Al-Arabi drew attention to the fact that the cycle of use of plastic bags is small, and that we import 70% of the materials for manufacturing them, which costs the state hard currency, and all of this is to no significant benefit, while harming the environment and public health. Therefore, the Waste Management Regulatory Authority worked to issue a new specification in this regard, stipulating that the bags used be free of hazardous materials, with a requirement to increase their thickness. So that we can use it again, and so that it does not fly in the air, in addition to that increasing its thickness will add value to the plastic bag in the eyes of the waste collection worker; He then takes it to the authorities responsible for recycling it.

Then the head of the Waste Management Regulatory Authority spoke about some incentives that support the field of waste management, such as the Green Label, which is a certificate granted to manufacturers who seek to reduce waste in their industrial processes, and to those who produce recyclable products, and then green labels are placed on their products; So that the consumer can differentiate between environmentally friendly products and other products.

One of the incentives that Dr. Tariq Al-Arabi spoke about is the cooperation between the agency and the Council of Ministers to motivate manufacturers to switch to safe alternatives to single-use plastic bags. Thus, they obtain all the incentives found in the investment law, in addition to obtaining the golden license upon fulfilling certain conditions.

Next came our question about the capabilities of mechanical biological treatment plants in extracting alternative energy.The head of the Waste Management Regulatory Authority said: We previously mentioned that 60% of the waste goes to mechanical biological treatment plants, which are plants that produce organic fertilizers and alternative fuels, which is an important fuel for cement factories. Because it saves energy, and its price is cheaper – this makes cement competitive in the Egyptian and global market – and it also saves hard currency, with which coal is imported.

Here we concluded our dialogue with a question about the future projects of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency. Al-Arabi answered, saying:The Waste Management Regulatory Authority is newly established, and what is common among people is that the agency’s work is limited to solid municipal waste. As for demolition, construction, and agricultural waste, there is previous planning in treating such waste. Agricultural waste – for example – is being worked on by many companies, especially banana waste, where there is notable success in extracting liquid fertilizer from this type of waste, as well as slaughterhouse waste, from which medicinal gelatin and fodder are extracted. All of this requires many business incubators.

As a representation of these practical requirements with interconnected relationships, Dr. Tariq Al-Arabi mentioned examples that reflect these relationships, including:

• Agricultural waste that belongs to the agricultural directorates in the governorates, which determine – in accordance with the law – the place of collecting this type of waste.
• Cotton firewood, which can be fuel for cement factories. The latter is responsible for managing the places where this type of waste is collected, and it also pays farmers the cost of transporting it with a financial due.
• Wastewater treatment plants, for which the agency cooperated with the Ministry of Housing to make the sludge a source of electrical energy, instead of just fertilizer, in addition to using it in cement factories as an alternative fuel.

In conclusion, Homat Al-Earth magazine thanks the head of the Waste Management Regulatory Authority – Dr. Tarek Al-Arabi – for making available his time for this dialogue, which shed light on a major axis of “Egypt Vision 2030”.