Nile clean-up campaign removes 1.5 tons of plastic waste

CAIRO – 25 November 2019: The Youth Love Egypt Foundation (YLE), organized a major campaign to clean-up the Nile River, and remove plastic waste off its shore, which known to be harmful to marine animals and humans’ health.

Nearly 192 volunteer participated in the campaign along with senior officials from Giza governorate.




A total of 1.5 tons of waste were collected according to the founder of “Youth Love Egypt” Ahmed Fathy. He said that the ongoing campaign called “Clean Shores” was launched in cooperation with the United Nations Information Center in Cairo, aiming to reduce the use of plastics in North Africa to achieve sustainable development goals.

He added that the campaign will take expand to more places nationwide in the future, adding nearly 16 governorates during the coming period. Fathy also pointed out that they are planning to accommodate the campaign to remove waste off Red Sea and the Mediterranean as well.





Many animals die after swallowing plastic bags. Plastic bags are also often burned, releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere.




As part of the initiative, the Ministry of Environment has launched a public advertisement campaign to raise awareness on the hazards of plastic bags.

Many other African counties have launched similar initiatives to put an end to the plastic bag harms. In 2008, Rwanda became one of the first African countries to impose a complete ban on thin plastic bags as part of its Vision 2020 plan for sustainability.

Currently, all plastic bags used in Rwanda are biodegradable.