The government is clamping down on the illegal recycling of medical waste, after hospital materials were found in Cairo plastics factories, Mahmoud Bakr reports The government has announced its intention of clamping down on the illegal recycling of medical waste after a plastics recycling factory in Abul-Nomros in southern Cairo was closed down for handling contaminated hospital refuse, including tubing and syringes. The factory owner, now in police custody, has been charged with the illegal use of hospital waste at his plant. The recycling of hospital waste is illegal under Egyptian law. According to Maged George, minister of state for environmental affairs, 17 tonnes of medical waste were seized at a warehouse in the Al-Basatin district of Cairo, the waste apparently being intended for sale to recycling factories. Following a tip- off that waste collectors were taking refuse from the Cairo University hospitals to a warehouse in Al-Basatin for illegal recycling, police raided the warehouse and seized a rubbish lorry used to transport the material. Three other warehouses in Batn Al-Baqarah in Old Cairo were also searched, and 23 tonnes of medical refuse, including cotton gauze, syringes, bottles and tubing, were seized. Egypt, along with other countries, bans the use of recycled plastics in all food packaging, a major use of plastics. According to Emad Adli, chairman of the Arab Office for Youth and the Environment, the World Health Organisation also prohibits the use of recycled plastics in food packaging. According to Hisham Mohamed, a health advisor at the National Research Centre, hospital waste should be recycled or incinerated on a daily basis inside establishments. All medical clinics in Egypt are required to contract a licensed company to recycle their waste, though these regulations are sometimes flouted, Mohamed added.
