After the H1N1 scare and the rash decision to slaughter some 250,000 pigs in the country, Egypt has seen an excess of trash as a repercussion. However, one group is setting its sights on combating the increasing garbage crisis and also hopes to benefit from its efforts.
Solar Cities, which builds solar water heaters for the garbage collecting community referred to as the Zabaleen, is trying to turn organic waste into biogas to help the local communities. Solar Cities recently received funding to build and install more biogas systems to make use of the garbage.
However, Omar Nagy of Solar Cities admits it’s a tough sell. Egypt is a producer and exporter of natural gas and heavily subsidizes it for its citizens. He said, “Gas is very cheap so this makes this system not economically feasible. However, if you put in consideration the emissions you get from gas and the greenhouse emissions and the environment effects, then this would be more feasible.”
Yet for many of the Zabaleen, the technology offered by Solar Cities is economically beyond their grasp. It costs approximately $550, which is the equivalent to what the average Zabaleen makes in six months collecting and sorting trash. That being said, the government does have a plan in place which is aimed to reduce subsidies gradually over a period of time. The first consumers to realize an increase in their natural gas prices have been the nation’s 40 largest industrial customers. These companies falling in the “energy-intensive industry” category were scheduled to be paying market price by 2010, while subsidies for non-energy-intensive industries will be continued until 2013.