Sometimes crises have positives.. They stimulate challenge and confrontation. This is exactly what The Environmental Compliance Office at The Federation of Egyptian Industries, has done. The office held a meeting so as to provide a wide range of business opportunities for the private sector to be active in the field of taking advantage of a neglected treasure named “solid wastes”.

Do you still have a video device, cassette or satellite receiver in your home? Do you have a useless mobile, old recorder or a television that should be exchanged with a new one? I wonder what is the fate of these old electronics that may carry toxic gases and dangerous wastes?.. Then, what is the fate of the tons of garbage stacked in the streets, although they include a wealth of plastic, paper, glass and metal wastes.

How can we turn these harmful wastes into popular business with specialized projects? These topics were discussed during the meeting held in The Environmental Compliance Office and Sustainable Development, last November 2013, to make use of solid wastes. The idea is bold and opens a wide door of hope to establish very profitable projects, with rates ranging from 25% to 50% of waste treasures.

Engineer Ahmed Kamal, the Executive Director of The Environmental Compliance Office, confirmed that Egypt has a national wealth estimated in billion. He added: “We have to think together how to make use of it in order to achieve an environmental and economic profit.

Mr. Kamal also said: “The idea is easy and successful, but it needs encouragement so that the private sector can join and benefit from it, since it is more capable in managing these wastes with successful and flexible methods rather than the government.

The most prominent model here is recycling electronic wastes, a problem that encounters us quickly because of the large number of such wastes in our homes. So how can we encourage the society to get rid of them for useful purposes? This was discussed during the meeting and there were presentations of very successful projects, among which were producing methanol from organic waste and fuel tablets from rice straw and preparing them for exportation since European countries rush on importing them for cheap heating purposes.

Furthermore, there are other projects that can be established by the sponsorship of The Environmental Compliance Office without high cost to make excellent revenues for the owners, in addition that they will provide job opportunities for countless number of ambitious youth.

Here the hope shines for the people, instead of yelling over the events and waiting for relief without concrete positive actions.