From banana fibres and discarded fabric to old metal drums, independent initiatives in Egypt are finding ways to turn waste into useful products and livelihoods. Their work offers a practical view of the green economy: using resources more efficiently, reducing pollution and creating jobs within local communities.
Climate change and pressure on natural resources have encouraged Egypt to adopt greener development policies. But how do small, independent projects contribute to those ambitions, and what stands in the way of their expansion?
Egypt launched its National Climate Change Strategy 2050 in May 2022, following the presentation of its broad framework at the Glasgow climate conference. It aims to connect lower-emission development, adaptation, finance and the protection of natural resources.
Earlier, in September 2020, Egypt became the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to issue a sovereign green bond: USD 750 million with a five-year maturity and a 5.25% yield. Investors lend to the government through the bond, whose proceeds finance eligible environmental projects; it is not a loan certificate handed directly to individual entrepreneurs.
Egypt’s contribution to global greenhouse-gas emissions is relatively small, around 0.6%, but its emissions have grown markedly over recent decades. The World Bank’s 2022 climate and development report cites emissions of about 325 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent in 2015, up from 248 million tonnes in 2005. It identifies energy, transport and industry as the dominant sources. Carbon-dioxide equivalent includes the warming effect of greenhouse gases other than CO₂.
From banana waste to bags and accessories
In Saqulta, Sohag, where banana farms are widespread, the harvest used to bring recurring arguments over plant waste dumped on roads and along irrigation canals and drains. Burning the discarded material added smoke to the problem.
Mohamed Yousri, chief executive of Banana Art, began looking for an environmentally safer solution with other young people from his village. After seeing how banana fibres were processed in India, he set out to adapt the idea locally. The project later expanded to transport discarded banana stems from Aswan to Sohag for recycling.
Yousri tells Zawia3 that blocked roads and smoke had made the waste a source of conflict between neighbours. He also describes respiratory difficulties among children and older people exposed to burning residues. The aim was to create an alternative to both dumping and burning.
Reports cited by the initiative estimate annual banana-plant waste in Egypt at about 1.65 million tonnes, associated with roughly 83,000 feddans of cultivation, concentrated in Upper Egypt. Such estimates underline the potential supply of material, though agricultural area, fruit output and the mass of plant residues are different measures.
Yousri and two friends began extracting usable fibres from the stems. They received offers to buy the raw material for export, but chose instead to develop finished products that could create local employment.
“We succeeded in extracting the fibres and received offers to buy them,” Yousri says. “But we preferred to use the waste to create an environmentally friendly product that would also provide jobs.”
He dates the initiative’s first successful trial to 2018. A locally manufactured machine for processing the stems cost about EGP 8,000, compared with an estimated EGP 45,000 for an imported one.
According to Yousri, the project initially provided a regular income for 20 families, and by the end of August 2022 around 1,000 people were involved in its work. Its products include handbags and accessories made from banana fibres, with opportunities for women supporting households in Aswan’s villages.
The project also changed the relationship between farmers and waste collectors, replacing a disposal problem with a useful supply chain. Yousri says Banana Art developed handmade products suitable for overseas markets and participated in exhibitions in Italy and Jordan.
A second life for textile waste
Discarded cloth offers another opportunity. A mapping study undertaken for UNIDO in 2021 by Blumine and Reverse Resources estimated that Egypt’s textile and clothing industry generates about 212,000 tonnes of pre-consumer and post-industrial waste annually. More than half consists of cotton or cotton-rich blends.
This is waste from production, rather than a measure of all clothing discarded by households. UNIDO notes that much of it is downcycled into lower-value uses such as padding and insulation, although it could potentially become new textile material. Effective sorting by fibre type and colour is essential to recovering that value.
The study formed part of the EU-funded SwitchMed programme. Its findings point to both an industrial resource and a practical challenge: mixed fibres and poorly sorted waste can make recycling harder, even when demand for reusable material exists.
In Menoufia, entrepreneur Hadir Shalaby launched Green Fashion in 2018 to connect environmental responsibility with rural women’s financial independence. The company uses patchwork techniques to turn fabric offcuts from factories into new products.
Shalaby describes an approach intended to reduce water use, favour cleaner production and make better use of environmentally preferable materials. The initiative has also established sustainability centres in several governorates, teaching crafts, leatherwork and the reuse of wood through decoupage.
Basma Mohamed, 21, works in one of the Menoufia workshops. She says learning to turn fabric scraps into new products changed the way she viewed the materials around her and gave her a job.
“Here I learned how we can reuse everything,” Basma tells Zawia3. “At first I did not understand the value of what we were doing. Then I realised we were helping the environment and making new products from material that would otherwise have gone into the rubbish.”
In January 2023, the Egyptian Clothing Bank and Cocoon cultural centre launched the first edition of Sustainable Elegance. The initiative sought to encourage more conscious use of clothing and reduce the environmental impact of fast fashion. Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad attended its launch.
A training programme, organised with the Commercial International Bank and Cocoon, targeted more than 80 female fashion designers. Collection efforts reached schools, universities, shopping centres and shops, gathering clothing and fabric that could no longer be sold or used in their original form.
After collection, the material is sorted for reuse. Factory remnants can become new items or filling for mattresses and cushions, while reusable bags offer an alternative to disposable plastic ones. Alongside production, the programme aims to improve public understanding of sustainable clothing.
Protecting the Red Sea’s livelihoods
Environmental specialist Hassan Fouad al-Tayeb says conservation initiatives can create employment directly and indirectly. Through his Hurghada-based marine rescue and environmental protection association, he has organised activities ranging from beach clean-ups to training people for work at sea.
Coral reefs are central to the Red Sea’s appeal to divers. Al-Tayeb sees their protection, the preservation of fish stocks and tourism livelihoods as connected parts of the same system.
He describes the association’s work as including responses to oil pollution from vessels and pipelines, efforts to address outbreaks of coral-eating starfish, marine-rescue training and instruction in handling inflatable rescue boats. He also identifies the risks surrounding irregular journeys by sea as an area of concern.
The association has worked with maritime specialists and other Red Sea environmental organisations to train young divers, improve rescue provision for Egyptian and foreign visitors and explore additional diving sites. Clean-up activities have included the beaches of Magawish and Giftun islands.
Al-Tayeb says researchers from the marine-science institute volunteered expertise for work on coral propagation and sea-cucumber cultivation. He believes combining scientific knowledge with practical training can strengthen conservation and create opportunities for young people.
Furniture from discarded drums
Islam Ragab, a law graduate from Beni Suef University living in Fayoum, found his own route into recycling by converting metal drums into furniture. He submitted the idea as a sustainable project to the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in cooperation with the Planning Ministry.
His interest began at home, where he experimented with discarded paper, metal, wood and other materials. He enjoyed giving each unwanted object a new character. Further research led him to focus on drums that could become furniture for homes and offices.
The initiative, ECO Furniture, later became a business. Ragab says its goals are to reuse waste, provide an alternative to some wooden furniture and offer consumers products at a lower cost.
The work creates orders for metalworkers, upholsterers and other craftspeople as demand arises. Cafés were among the early customers, but the company subsequently adapted its designs to appeal to households.
“I did not imagine that turning drums into furniture would be so successful,” Ragab says. “We developed the designs so families would find them attractive and use them as an alternative to wooden furniture.”
Such projects sit alongside larger public commitments. Egypt’s 100 Million Trees initiative, launched in 2022, seeks to expand planting and green space. An October 2024 Environment Ministry update identified roughly 9,900 sites covering 6,600 feddans for woodland and gardens, including sites using treated wastewater. These are programme targets, not proof of a measured nationwide reduction in emissions.
At the same time, tree removal for roads, bridges and urban development has caused widespread anger. Residents and environmental advocates have described the losses as a “massacre of trees”, questioning how those decisions fit with official promises to expand green space.
Earlier Zawia3 reporting examined these losses and their implications for access to shade and greenery. Other reporting has documented substantial reductions in Cairo, Heliopolis, Nasr City and Alexandria. Figures for urban green space and satellite-observed tree cover measure different things and should not be combined into a single national per-person estimate.
Among the independent responses is Shagrha, founded by Omar al-Deeb in 2016. It trains participants to grow fruit trees and cultivate rooftops and balconies.
According to the initiative’s figures, it planted 35,000 fruit trees in 2022. By 2024, its cumulative total since 2016 exceeded 350,000 across 17 governorates. It also reported work on 10,000 rooftops and balconies, participation by 180 schools and universities and 200 Egyptian and international institutions, and around 800 planting events.
Al-Deeb says his greatest satisfaction comes from seeing people eat fruit from trees the initiative planted.
Turning individual projects into wider change
Economist Rashad Abdo argues that environmental improvements are possible across economic sectors. He urges local producers to develop greener products that can meet overseas market requirements, and sees green finance as an important tool for supporting that transition.
He also calls for a move away from plastic bags because of their environmental and health impacts. A report cited by the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Centre put Egypt’s plastic waste in 2022/23 at about 2.5 million tonnes. That figure concerns plastic waste overall, not plastic bags alone.
A 2023 Carnegie analysis highlighted Egypt’s exposure to rising temperatures and environmental degradation, alongside pollution pressures in several sectors. These risks make the practical work of reducing waste and conserving resources more urgent.
The initiatives profiled here show how discarded agricultural and industrial material can support new products and jobs. Their founders describe benefits for farmers, craftspeople and women seeking an independent income. Scaling those efforts requires reliable access to materials, suitable skills, markets and finance, while environmental claims need to be distinguished from independently measured results.
A greener economy depends on both these local efforts and the public policies surrounding them: protecting existing resources, supporting reuse and ensuring that economic opportunity does not come at the expense of the environment.
