Six million tons of municipal waste removed from 54 locations across Egypt - official

Smoke rises from burning garbage in downtown Cairo October 20, 2011. Environmentalists blame the burning of agricultural waste, mostly rice straw, for the pall of smoke that turns Cairo's already poor quality air into an even more toxic mix. Farmers produce about 30 million tonnes of what they see as waste each year. What they burn is responsible for 42 percent of autumnal air pollution, the environmentalists say. Picture taken October 20, 2011. To match Feature EGYPT-RICE/ REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: AGRICULTURE ENVIRONMENT)

CAIRO, March 13 (MENA) – Assistant Local Development Minister Khaled Qassem said on Thursday sixmillion tons of municipal waste were removed over the past period from 54 locations across Egypt as part of the integrated waste management.

Qassem made the remarks during a meeting at the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center to shed light on the new mechanism as well as waste collection and recycling efforts.

He said 35 contracts were signed lately in 18 governorates to operate the new integrated waste mechanism projects.

The mechanism includes 29 intermediate waste treatment facilities (fixed and mobile), 12 recycling, treatment, and sorting facilities and 46 sanitary landfills.

He added that efforts are under way to set up the first integrated waste recycling city spanning over 1,226 feddans in the 10th of Ramadan city.

The past period witnessed the production of 2.6 million tons of organic fertilizers based on municipal waste recycling. (MENA)