Egypt's Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, and the Minister of State for Military Production, Mohamed Salah El-Din Mustafa, inaugurated a factory for the production of environmentally friendly cardboard packaging from banana fiber waste at the Armored Vehicles Production and Repair Factory (Military Factory 200), one of the factories affiliated with the Ministry of Military Production. The opening and operation of the factory came in light of the existing cooperation between the Military Production Ministry and the Australian company Paperius to produce environmentally friendly cardboard food packaging, and through an integrated system targeting the use of banana waste to produce products that serve the family sector.
In a statement, the Minister of Military Production pointed out that the implementation of this system came in two stages, the first of which was carried out by Paperius, in which a factory was established in Sohag Governorate to convert waste into fibers, and the second stage is the establishment of an integrated automatic production line to produce environmentally friendly cardboard packaging from banana fibers inside one of the factories affiliated with the Ministry of Military Production.
Under this existing cooperation between the two parties, the Australian company will purchase the entire production from the Military Production Ministry, market it, and export it.
The Minister of Environment confirmed that this comes within the framework of transferring and localizing modern environmental technology used in green industries and waste recycling, noting that the first phase of the integrated automatic production line for producing environmentally friendly cardboard packaging from banana fibers has a production capacity of 60 million units – cardboard boxes annually.
The factory provides more than 110 job opportunities as direct and indirect labor, and the investment cost of the project during the first phase is EGP 40m, noting that the environmental dimension of the project is represented in the safe disposal and optimal utilization of banana crop waste. The capacity of the first phase is 50,000 tonnes of banana crop waste.
The complex also has a capacity of 100,000 tons of banana crop waste, and is working to replace 10,000 tons of plastic products annually for the complex.
Fouad further pointed out that the production line consists of 6 tanks, a crusher and softener machine, a drying oven, and presses to adjust the formation, ironing, and removing excess by 15 presses, noting that the (200 Military) factory is producing a line similar to what was imported abroad to increase the depth of local manufacturing, while Paperius will market the products of that line locally and export it.
Egypt cultivates 120,000 feddans of bananas as a sustainable agriculture, which produces 12 million tonnes of waste annually, and produces 8 million tons of harmful gases if this waste is not utilized.
The Minister of Environment pointed out that the ministry will soon launch an electronic platform that allows companies and representatives of the private sector from various fields, especially in the field of plastics, and enables them to collect ideas and investment opportunities available in all fields, to expand the circle of partners and facilitate investors' access to these investment opportunities through that platform.
