Hormuz Strait crisis boosts plastic recycling in Cairo
Geopolitical tension around the Strait of Hormuz has caused a shortage of raw materials and sharply raised the price of new plastic. As a result, Egyptian factories are increasingly buying recycled plastic from Cairo's Manshiyet Nasser district.
In Cairo's Manshiyet Nasser district, a maze of narrow streets in the Egyptian capital, about 120,000 residents process a third of the megacity's waste every day. These informal recycling workers were long marginalised, but their role is now changing rapidly.
Supply disruption from the Gulf
The shift stems from geopolitical tension in the Strait of Hormuz, the route through which polyethylene from the Gulf normally travels. A shortage of imported raw materials has roughly doubled the price of new plastic.
Demand for recycled material
In these conditions, Egyptian factories are increasingly looking to this Coptic neighbourhood for supplies. Its residents sort and recycle up to 8,000 tonnes of rubbish daily. Up to 90 percent of the plastic waste arriving in Manshiyet Nasser is reused and given a new life.
The report was produced by FRANCE 24's Mathilde Delvigne and Grégory Holyoke. It illustrates how international tension indirectly affects the local economy and strengthens the position of the informal recycling sector within Egypt's industrial supply chain.
