Young Egyptians battle plastic plague with innovative approach

A worker sorts through shredded plastic waste at a workshop of startup company TileGreen, where it is recycled into eco-friendly interlocking tiles used in outdoor walkways, in the outskirts of Cairo. Photos: AFP

Entrepreneurial young Egyptians are helping combat their country’s huge plastic waste problem by recycling junk-food wrappers, water bottles and similar garbage that usually ends up in landfills or the Nile.

At a factory on the outskirts of Cairo, run by their startup TileGreen, noisy machines gobble up huge amounts of plastic scraps of all colours, shred them and turn them into a thick liquid.