GENERATING electricity from waste is a new global trend, whose purpose is to create a cheap, permanent source of energy in the light of the fluctuation in prices of oil, which is expected to run out sooner or later. Like every world country, Egypt is contemplating generating electricity from waste, not only because its oil and gas reserves are shrinking, but also because it desperately needs to get rid of all its garbage. This is why the public are delighted that the Ministry of the Environment is considering bids from 21 foreign companies to generate electricity from waste. According to Minister of the Environment Maged George, the project will start with Greater Cairo, in order to get rid of the huge quantities of garbage being produced in the capital and adjacent governorates. The garbage problem existed in Egypt long before the tragic extermination of the pigs after the emergence of the swine flu. Even when the governors of Cairo, Alexandria and Giza contracted with some foreign companies to collect and recycle garbage, the problem continued to irritate inhabitants of these governorates, in whose streets the rubbish began to mount towards the sky. The reason for this is that the local garbage collectors have been overlooked, while the contracts with the foreign companies weren't strictly enforced. So the Government finally stopped dealing with these foreign companies, while the garbage problem was exacerbated by the fact that all the pigs were slaughtered in a primitive manner. Will the Government take into account the problem it had with the foreign companies when launching this project for generating energy from garbage? Will the new contracts include the collection of garbage, not just its classification into solid and organic substances to be used to produce energy and other substances? And, most importantly, will the new project take into account the local garbage collectors or will they be ignored again, causing the new project to fail too?
