The Ministry of Environment – Egypt and SCP/RAC are joining force to “limit single-use plastic bags” with the holding of a consultative workshop in Cairo

The Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with SCP/RAC, has announced the holding of a consultative workshop entitled "Measures to limit single-use plastic bags", within the framework of the project Marine Litter Med, funded by the European Union, on Tuesday 17^th 2019 at the Hotel Marryot Zamalek.

The event will count with the presence of H.E. Minister of Environment, Dr. Yasmin Fouad, and H. E. Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Amr Nassar, who will also use this opportunity to give an update on the ministry’s plan to reduce the use of plastic bags hoping to exchange views on it during the workshop. SCP/RAC will contribute by presenting the regional guidelines to phase out single-use plastic bags, which will be adopted soon by the Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention.

Plastic bags represent a large proportion of marine residues found in seas and oceans today and negatively affect the biological diversity. This has prompted many Mediterranean countries such as France, Spain, Italy and Tunisia to take the necessary measures to combat marine waste and enact laws to prevent the use of disposable plastic bags.

The workshop aims to create an opportunity for dialogue between the concerned parties and to share the latest developments with regards to the available alternatives and the necessary measures that will allow the state to reduce the use of plastic bags.

Finally, this event will also be the occasion to announce and discover the winners of the #BagToTheFuture Award. This two-fold challenge was launched in July by SCP/RAC and VeryNile is aimed at finding alternatives to single-use plastic bags as well as promoting a more responsible consumer and retailer behaviour.

Under this initiative, 27 applications were received and a jury made up of 5 experts in the areas of entrepreneurship, environmental and finance have now selected the two awarded candidates at the event. They both are invited to pitch their initiatives an kick off their incubation and mentorship process which will culminate in a final receipt of seed funding to further develop their initiatives. The total value of the award is of 280.000 EGP and is aimed at supporting Egypt’s efforts in phasing-out single-use plastic bags as well as promoting business innovation.

You can download the agenda of the event here

For more information: pfernandez@scprac.org

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