A pilot project to purchase garbage from citizens would start with two outlets in Cairo next week, the state newspaper Al-Akhbar quoted the governor of Cairo Atef Abdel Hamid as saying on Thursday.

One outlet would be at Ibn Sender Square in Hadaek Al-qoba district and the other at Aswan Street in Heliopolis district, both would be run by some local NGO’s under the supervision of the governorate, Abdel Hamid said.

He explained in a his statement reported by the newspaper, that "this project will achieve a major breakthrough in the field of hygiene, if successful, along with substantial economic feasibility, given the need of recycling plants that can find only 25% of its needs for the waste, as well as it will provide job opportunities for young people employed by the NGO’s."

The garbage is a major problem in Egypt because of its spread in most streets. An earlier report by the Ministry of Environment revealed that the total solid waste in Egypt amounts to 75 million tons per year with 55 tons per day.

The Ministry of Local Development works to develop effective solutions to the problem of garbage in the governorates, and has already asked the governors to issue an administrative decision to fine any store, café, restaurant or any other facility that throw rubbish in streets, and to close these facilities in the case of repeating.