Egyptian Startup Turns Plastic Waste Into Paving Tiles

São Paulo – Bearing in mind the low recycling rate of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), an Egyptian startup has developed a solution to help change this situation. The region is going through a moment of awareness-raising on issues regarding the environment, sustainability and solid waste management, but some of its countries still have the world's lowest recycling rates or don't even recycle at all.

So the startup TileGreen created a technology that turns plastic waste into paving tiles and has tested other products to introduce in the construction market as well. The technology is patented, and some countries have showed interest in the sustainable innovation.

ANBA interviewed tilegreen cofounder & CTO Khaled Raafat. Together with his partner, cofounder & CEO Amr Shalan, Raafat saw an opportunity to turn plastic waste into something useful for the society,“Amr [Shalan] worked in the waste management industry, and we worked together in many companies, then we saw this opportunity, as 85% of all plastic wasted usually goes unrecycled. Most of the plastic are disposable, single-use,” said the CTO.