An Egyptian young man turns waste into gold

<p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr">ArabiaWeather.com- The young Egyptian Mustafa Hamdan succeeded in finding a way to make a good income, by converting waste into gold, but this success did not come without obstacles.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> Hamdan, 25, founded Recyclobekia, one of the first e-waste recycling companies in the Middle East, and the beginning was 5 years ago in the garage of his parents&#39; house in Tanta, 90 kilometers north of the capital, Cairo.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> At the same time, Hamdan was studying at the Faculty of Engineering, and he participated with 19 students from the university in a competition for entrepreneurship called &quot;Achievement&quot;. The prize for the winner of the competition was $10,000.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> “I was watching a documentary about e-waste recycling, and I realized there was a lot of potential in extracting metals from mother boards – gold, silver, copper and platinum,” says Hamdan. “It was a booming industry in Europe and the US, but It was not practiced by anyone in the Middle East.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> Hence, he came up with the idea of establishing Recyclobekia, whose name was borrowed from the two Arabic words in the Egyptian culture, &quot;ruba bekia&quot;, which means &quot;old things&quot;, and is usually heard on the streets of Cairo when buyers of old things call out to buy discarded household items.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> Today, Hamdan employs 20 people in 4 stores, and the young businessman sells electronic waste worth $2.4 million annually.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> Hamdan is currently planning to expand his company across the Middle East, and has partnered with Jumia e-shopping site to allow people to trade in their e-waste in exchange for vouchers to buy products.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p>