The nascent used beverage carton recycling sector is picking up steam: Last month, a local-international consortium made up of SIG Group, Carta Misr, Plastic Bank, TileGreen, and GIZ announced a fresh end-to-end recycling system for used beverage cartons (UBC). The initiative brings fresh momentum to the budding UBC recycling market, which started to take shape in recent years following the entry of a small number of players. In this story, we dive into the mechanics and impact of the new project while reviewing the sector’s achievements and challenges to date.

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The full-cycle project at a glance: The initiative targets every stage of the recycling process. The local arm of Canada-based social fintech Plastic Bank oversees the collection of cartons through a network of designated waste collection members. Local paper mill Carta Misr recycles the cartons into paper products after separating the paper fibers from the polymer and aluminum layers. And local recycling startup TileGreen repurposes the remaining polymer and aluminum mix into building materials.

The initiative has collected enough cartons to be on pace to hit its target of gathering 700metrictons by 2026, Plastic Bank Egypt Country Manager Ahmed Abdelaleem told EnterpriseAM. The three-year initiative aims to reshape Egypt's recycling sector while enhancing the livelihood of nearly 1k local collection members.

The project has been in the making for over a year: Swiss packaging company SIG Group, German development agency GIZ, and Plastic Bank started building the infrastructure and operational base for the project in January 2024, Abdelaleem said. The first phase saw Plastic Bank raising awareness among its waste collection communities, educating collectors about the value of cartons, how to collect them, and their potential as a source of income, Abdelaleem said.

Door-to-door collection maximizes waste capture: Collection members visit houses, facilities, and restaurants to collect all types of waste. “The waste is then taken to their homes, where other family members help sort it into plastic, aluminum, rubber, glass, paper, and cardboard,” Abdelaleem explained. The project currently involves ten of Plastic Bank's 21 collection centers in Egypt, operating across two of the ten governorates where the company is present.

The recycled materials help drive a circular economy: While Carta Misr manufactures paper, TileGreen produces plastic blocks that can be used in construction, replacing concrete-based building materials, co-founder and CTO of TileGreen Khaled Raafat told us. The end product must be market-competitive, valued not only for its environmental benefits, but also for its technical and economic viability, Raafat said.

The environmental benefits are profound: “What we have done here helps cut more than 67% of the carbon emissions that are generated in the processes of landfilling or incineration,” Raafat said. Complex plastic waste packaging materials — like those in question here — typically end up in landfills or incinerators, generating significant carbon emissions and inflicting environmental damage, Raafat explained.

The initiative is backed by a blockchain-secured platform. The Plastic Bank app allows collectors to record each item they collect, earning incentives sent directly to their digital wallets. The app also gives them access to social benefits like health, work and life insurance, grocery vouchers, and school supplies, among other perks.

Public sentiment towards recycling is shifting: While the partners initially faced resistance from both internal and external stakeholders, “people have been participating actively and positively” ever since the project started showing promising results, Raafat said. Abdelaleem agreed with this notion, telling us that there is a rising level of awareness and interest from younger generations, particularly Gen-Z, in recycling initiatives. Plastic Bank plans to leverage its educational platforms to raise awareness about recycling and waste management initiatives across all age groups, he said.

The digital adoption landscape is also developing rapidly: “When Plastic Bank launched in Egypt in late 2020, it was a challenge to convince collectors to set up digital wallets for receiving their income, and they were skeptical about the initiative,” Abdelaleem said. During the first three months, incentives were distributed manually. As trust between the local collectors and Plastic Bank grew, they became more confident in the social enterprise, which encouraged them to open digital wallets and download the app to collect funds, he explained. “In Egypt, every home has a smartphone. Even if the collector doesn’t own one, their spouse or one of their children likely does. All they really need is a smartphone, along with the digital wallet linked to their phone number and their national ID,” Abdelaleem said.

And the project could expand soon: “We believe that many companies here in Egypt will be interested in joining such a project, giving their products a second life instead of viewing them as waste,” Abdelaleem said. The partners might expand to other governorates, ramp up collection quantities, or extend recycling to other materials, he said.

A WIDER VIEW OF THE UBC RECYCLING MARKET-

Egypt’s first UBC recycling facility opened last December, when global packaging solutions giant Tetra Pak and local cardboard manufacturer Uniboard inaugurated their EUR 2.5 mn facility in Sadat City. The plant is expected to surpass its annual recycling capacity target of 8k tons by 2028, ahead of its original five-year timeline.

The groundwork was laid a couple of years earlier: The two players, along with local diary giants Juhayna and Beyti, launched an initiative to improve UBS collection, recycling, and awareness during COP 27 in November 2022. Dubbed the Egyptian pact for used beverage carton waste, the initiative brings together key industry players — recyclers, collectors, government entities, and NGOs — to collaborate across the UBS value chain.

SIG was also hard at work in 2022. The company in October of that year introduced a mobile app-based system for collecting used aseptic carton packs directly from homes and food service businesses — dubbed Recycle for Good — in partnership with homegrown waste management startup Tagaddod.

Used beverage cartons make up about 6% of municipal waste in Egypt, Abdelaleem said, citing company data. Egypt produces an annual 100 mn tons of waste, mostly consisting of agricultural, drainage, canal, and municipal waste, according to National Solid Waste Management Program data (pdf) cited in the Journal of Waste Management and Disposal.

More corporate and government support is needed. “These initiatives have to be incentivized by the government in order for big corporations and key players to adopt more sustainable materials and develop recycling plans,” Raafat said. He explained that more industrial and corporate entities in the country should be encouraged to participate for the market to shift from “solo efforts” to a broader movement.

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