These Egyptian students are on a mission to turn trash into treasure

Content is king, especially when it comes in the form of an app.  Ninety per cent of the time spent on mobile devices is on apps; these little programs have become the first thing we check in the morning and the last we say goodnight to. This is a theme three high -school friends and tech whizzes were all too familiar with. Frustrated by wasteful consumer behaviour in Egypt, Ismail Sabry (21), Mohamed Asaad (22), and Assem Abdelwahab (21) decided to come up with a solution—through a smartphone.

“Growing up in Egypt, it was common to see people throwing away things they didn’t need anymore,” said Mohamed. “From electronic devices to clothes to left-overs, Egyptian culture facilitates waste more than it does donation. That’s how Wasteless Egypt came about.” 

The newly created Android app (set to launch soon on IOS), Wasteless Egypt allows users to donate unwanted (but consumable) food and clothes to nearby NGOs (located via GPS), who help in distributing the goods to those who really need them.

APP-LAUSE

The trio launched the demo version in December, 2016, and took home the $7000 third-place prize in the Mobile Application Launchpad (MAL) competition, a programme powered by Google and Egypt’s Ministry of CIT. Mohamed then joined forces with his friends to begin working on a refined, professional solution to their home country’s growing waste problem using the capital they won from the competition.

“I was thrilled to work with my friends; I always had a passion for tech and social responsibility. I idolise Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus for his ability to apply business concepts in Bangladesh to support underdeveloped communities through microfinance,” Ismail explained. “I too wanted to do the same for my country, and Wasteless Egypt was how I was going to achieve that.”

After six long months of research, training and pulling statistics from the World Food Programme, the trio started collecting donations through the app and just recently finished a clothes donation campaign to an orphanage.

“Egypt’s waste problem always existed, we just needed to find an easy solution that was financially sustainable and accessible to the Egyptian consumer. We were thrilled that the app was well received by our family and friends. We were privileged to receive this kind of support from Day One, and that’s something that we’ll always be grateful for,” said Assem.

OLD HABITS DIE HARD

The trio’s biggest obstacle to date is Egypt’s 7,000-year-old culture. But Wasteless Egypt is not the only app redirecting unwanted goods from bins to homes; Hasala, a previous MAL first-place winner, is also working hard to change Egyptians’ consumer habits.

“We’re not the only ones to deal with this issue; we are, however, the only ones who are trying to create a movement and increase awareness about bad habits that are instilled in our culture,” Ismail concluded.

Wasteless Egypt aims to reach Egypt’s rural, underprivileged areas; collaborate with NGOs all over the country to widely spread their donations across all 200-plus cities; and to put Egypt on the path to reducing waste and increasing recycling.

[Images courtesy Wasteless Egypt]