In Egypt, there was no plastic bottle collection and recycling system despite the estimated 5.4 million tons of waste generated in the country yearly. To address the situation, Dawarha created a solution that allies mobile apps with AI-based collectors. With the solution, Dawarha collects around 15,000 plastic bottles monthly.
Egyptian tech firm Dawarha is carving its name in its origin country with its artificial intelligence-based plastic recycling machine. For mechatronics engineer Mohamed Kabil (photo), Dawarha CEO and co-founder, the recycling machine is the startup’s contribution to the fight against plastic pollution.
To get the population involved in the fight against plastic pollution, the said solution rewards every user who deposits plastic bottles with bottled water, vouchers or discounts to be used in local stores.
Dawarha also developed an app that allows users to locate the nearest collectors. According to Mohamed Kabil, Dawarha was created to address the lack of sorting and recycling infrastructure in Egypt where an average of 5.4 million tons of waste is generated yearly.
He explains that in Western countries like Germany where he took pre-masters courses, catering companies are in charge of plastic bottle collection via a national deposit system. “... Companies add extra fees to the price of the bottles available for sale at retailers. Customers can [be] refunded the extra fees when returning the bottles at the local shop or retailer,” he stressed.
“This [system] does not exist here, so people tend to be more encouraged to recycle waste when they are rewarded. Therefore RVMs are found to be one of the most effective methods of waste collection and separation from the source,” Mohamed Kabil added.
The research and development enthusiast, who worked from 2018 to 2019 as a researcher at the Micro and Nano Robotics Laboratory at the German University in Cairo, believes that technological innovation has an important role to play in protecting the planet.
In April 2022, he estimated the volume of bottles collected by Dawarha's system monthly to be around 15,000.
Melchior Koba
