Egypt’s PPP Central Unit of the Finance Ministry has selected the US’ Chemonics to carry out a prefeasibility report for three recycling/waste-to-energy projects.

According to director of the PPP Central Unit, Atter Hannoura, the study is expected to take six to seven weeks to complete.

The projects will be financed on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis under a build-own-transfer (BOT) structure. Sites in Helwan, Cairo and Giza will be used for the projects, which will each process about 2,000-3,500 tonnes of household waste a day.

The projects may be tendered together, or on an individual basis and the facilities may use anaerobic, combustion or gasification technology to produce power.

“We are trying to divert waste from landfill,” says Hannoura. There are currently many people in Egypt who rely on sorting and recycling rubbish informally. The pilot projects will not make a difference to this process. “We are not interested in taking the stuff that can be recycled. We are just interested in the leftovers,” says Hannoura.