Extra earnings from the Nile

Give a man a plastic bag and he will throw it away the next day. Show a man how to recycle plastic and you will feed him for a lifetime.

The River Nile has been used as the dustbin of Egypt. More than 40 tons of garbage has been fished out of one section of the waterway. Bad news indeed, but there is a positive side to the story.

The Very Happy Nile (VeryNile) scheme, headquartered on Qursaiya Island near Giza, has been working with local fishermen to collect plastic from the river. The plastic is baled up and sent to craftswomen on the island.

Mustafa Habib, co-founder of (VeryNile) told The Egyptian Gazette that the scheme was set up to help the residents of Qursaiya Island make a living from the plastic bags collected from the river.

“Local craftswomen make shopping bags and aprons, which they sell,” Habib said. “We have partnered with furniture designers to sell the finished products online.”

VeryNile has made a public appeal for donations in the form of plastic shopping bags.

In recent years, several governmental and non-governmental initiatives in Egypt have been campaigning against the use of one-use plastic items by encouraging shops and customers to use environment-friendly alternatives.

VeryNile, an initiative that has been dedicated over the past two years for cleaning up the Nile through collecting trash thrown on it, has come up with a great idea for the safe disposal of plastic trash and turning it into a useful resource.

According to a study by the Ministry of Environment, every year 22 million tons of plastic which includes 12 billion plastic bags are used in Egypt.

Since December 2018, VeryNile volunteers have partnered with local fishermen to gather plastic from the Nile and bring it back along with the fish in exchange for cash.

“Thanks to VeryNile, fishermen have formed a green army to clean the Nile daily,” Habis said. “We provide them with the tools, equipment and knowhow to remove trash from the river and compact it before recycling.

“The fishermen are paid per kilo of plastic they collect, which is an ideal way to improve on residents’ hand-to-mouth existence,” Habib added.

“Over the last two years, we have removed 43 tons of trash from the Nile with the help of 4,000 volunteers and 15 fishermen.

“We have persuaded 150 shops to stop using single use plastic bags, and raised awareness in schools and universities about water pollution.

“We have also opened a waste collection centre on Qursaiya Island.”

Very Happy Nile scheme indeed lives up to its name.