CAIRO: “HEPCA is a good solution. It's a real solution. We keep saying it's not good to have plastic bags around. Yes we know. Now what?” Renzo Pirrello, Manager of Aquarius Awlad Baraka. Now what indeed? We're all good to talk, everyone loves a good rant. It's easy, and noncommittal. Until someone asks you ‘now what? What are you going to do about it?' HEPCA (Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association) can answer that question with confidence when it comes to the recycling of solid wastes in Marsa Alam, where one of its two material recovery facilities is located (the other being in Hurghada). Without much support from the municipality which does not stop short at being useless, but also makes life difficult for the facility which provides the service for free for the town, the facility goes on faithfully. One would think that they would be supported considering the great job they're trying to do and the fact that they provide employment for a total of 70 employees including Bedouins and women. The facility's job begins with collecting the garbage, only charging resorts and hotels a minimal fee, bringing it to the facility where it is sorted into organic and non organic materials. Food is given to cattle, recyclable things are gathered together according to kind, and non recyclable things are buried. Large trucks then take the materials to be recycled to recycling factories in Cairo in the 6th of October and Abu Zaabal area where they are sold to be recycled. To answer the ever controversial issue of plastic, the Red Sea Governorate is instigating a ban. Known to suffocate helpless animals from turtles to corals, and pollute due to its non-biodegradable nature. The word ‘plastic' to environmentalists, is equivalent to the word ‘promiscuity' to puritanical conservatives, except in the case of the environment the cause is justified. Therefore, at first, when the facility's Executive Manager, Ossama Ghazali, and Managerial Assistant Ramadan Mohamed Ahmed, showed me the new factory due to run next year for recycling plastic, I gasped. “But what about the ban?” I asked skeptically and panicked. “Yes, there is a ban on plastic bags in the Red Sea. But is that practical?” Said Ghazali. Somehow there will be plastic bags, if not from within the governorate, then from people traveling from outside. Instead of going up in arms in a haphazard rage, HEPCA did indeed come up with a real solution as Pirrello stated earlier. “What we do, is recycle, and we can create anything usable, not necessarily more plastic bags.” Often, when we're too close to something, we miss the obvious, such as the above simple possibility. The facility is meticulous, and employees are working with dedication (they had no idea I was about to barge in on them with a notebook and a camera). Their sorting is accurate to the point that things of the same kind are sorted out based on their color. On a sad note, even though they make life easier for whoever will pick up where they left of, life is not made easier for them. Managerial assistant, Ramadan Mohamed Ahmed, a gentleman from Aswan, says “I enjoy my work very much. I'm here from the start. I built it. That's why I'm very careful about everything. Even the people working here, they're working based on love, caring and good will. It is after all rubbish and who wants to work with that? It's exhausting.” After all this effort, they still get red flags from some authorities. Services provided to the facility are very limited. They have to get their own water for example. However, this is not their main complaint. The workers of this facility are harassed by border control officers whenever they go on holiday and come back, even though they have employment cards and proper papers which should at the very least grant the employees some respect if not a facilitated passage. They are, after all, professional environmentalists cleaning up our act. Eco Options Egypt
