On the outskirts of 6th of October City in Giza Governorate, one of 50 factories that produce biodegradable plastic bags is located, according to Khaled Abul-Makarem, head of the Plastics Division at the Chamber of Chemical Industries affiliated to the Federation of Industries, last October.
The factory produces environmentally friendly bags with the same machines used in the manufacture of regular plastic bags. Muhammad Abd al-Rahman, 42 years old, the owner of the factory, confirms that adding degradation material does not change the properties of the bags in any way, and does not require changing the mechanical parts of the production machines, pointing out that importing This material is subject to specific standards set by the company that manufactures it, in addition to periodic inspection of the factories producing plastic bags using that material, supervised by experts in the plastic industry, and in the event that one of the factories violates the quality standards and ratios set by the company, the license to import that material is withdrawn from the factory, and imposed A ban on the violating factory until it adheres to the proportions set by the manufacturer, represented in adding 1% of the raw material to polyethylene or polypropylene.
A large yard contains many raw materials that are stored until they are used in the manufacture of bags, next to it are a number of sealed packages containing a substance called “d2w”, which are small balls of gray color, similar to grains of grain, and are used to transform bags It is a chemical that has certain properties that allow the plastic particles to break down, which leads to its biological degradation.
A large gate is the only entrance to the factory separating its administration from the factory yard full of manufacturing equipment, next to it is a large number of workers, next to the mixing and mixing machine, which is a large container fixed on an iron base and inside it is a stainless steel arm used in Mixing the components of the bags, Shaaban Owais, 32 years old, one of the factory workers, waited for a new job order to be received. He told Al-Watan: “My turn in the factory is to receive job applications, and this will consist of a printed paper containing all the specifications of the required bags. Beginning with the specifications and dimensions of the bag, passing through the number of bags, and ending with the color of the bag itself.” The nature of “Owais” work requires him to ensure the mixture to be used in manufacturing so that there is no defect in the required proportions.
Owais believes that the use of biodegradable bags must be expanded as they are of great importance in preserving the environment: “It is natural that everyone is trying to preserve our country, and regular bags cause many problems, but biodegradable bags disappear after a specific period, and that is why Myself is that all plastic factories produce biodegradable bags, and thus we will be participating in serving the environment and preserving it from pollution.
Mohamed Abdel Rahman, the owner of the factory, tells his journey with the manufacture of environmentally friendly bags. He says that after a long period of work in the field of manufacturing regular bags, he decided to go to the manufacture of biodegradable bags out of his desire to preserve the environment, as he confirms. He is the one who worked in the industry The bags 9 years ago preceded his decision to convert his products to environmentally friendly ones, and the beginning was a year ago when he realized that he had to reach the large chains with high consumption: “In order to sell more, I had to contract with large stores, so I went to a famous hypermarket,” he said. For me, your product must be biodegradable, and we will ensure the safety of the proportions set by ourselves through specialized laboratories.” Abdel Rahman began to think of a way to enable him to bring that substance that he does not know anything about, even its chemical properties are unknown to him, but he seeks to enter it into his factory so that He can contract with the famous hypermarket: “I knew that there is an agent for an English company that manufactures a material that they say has chemical properties that affect polyethylene, the raw material for the bags, and that this material biodegrades the bags after 18 weeks or according to the desire of the customer himself. I contacted the agent.” In turn, he assured me that the manufacturing steps will not differ after placing the raw material, and that the characteristics of the bag will not differ after placing the material. We brought the material from it after he contacted the factory in England, so that they would give them the specifications that I needed in the bags and what the hypermarket determined, and through which I contracted with them. After that, I received the material, and we made a sample of bags using the degradation material, and we sold it to the market to make sure of the percentage, and the suitability of the bags for use, and our Lord was generous and the high-end market agreed. While seeking to conclude the largest possible number of partnership contracts with the famous chains, and indeed he had what he wanted: “I said I had to increase my production of environmentally friendly bags, and I spoke to the company that manufactures polyethylene in Saudi Arabia in order to supply my share of the raw material for making bags, and I really succeeded in this.” Currently, it is making for the largest 4 hypermarket chains in Egypt.
There are many stages that the thermo-degradable bags go through until their aesthetic shape is completed, as the manufacturing processes begin with the drawing stage, which the factory owner defines as the stage in which the polyethylene transforms from its raw form, where it is in the form of small balls to a “roll” of a specific color From the beginning of manufacture, saying: “I consider that drawing is the most important stage of manufacturing, because at this stage the polyethylene turns into a roll after it was just small balls of no value, and the importance of this stage is that it is very sensitive and affects the quality of the bag itself, so it must be taken into account For proportions and method of kneading ».
The drawing stage begins, as the factory owner says, from the raw material, whether it is polyethylene or polypropylene, as it is placed in a deep pot slightly raised from the ground and fixed with iron arms behind the front end of the drawing device, then that material is kneaded by means of heaters until The material is spread out and then subjected to sudden cooling to eventually come out in the form of a large roll, which is cut later. Then comes the stage of cutting the “roll” into small parts with sizes that are determined before the start of the mixing process, then the third stage, which is the stage of printing and writing customer data, The fourth stage is making the “hand” of the bags.
Mohamed Ahmed, 43 years old, one of the factory owners, believes that there must be a mandatory decision that obliges all factories to manufacture these bags, which protect the environment from the damage of plastic bags, which cannot be dealt with by normal methods such as recycling, as these bags cannot be collected And returning it again for use, so it is considered a major crisis that must be addressed: “It is impossible for a scavenger to search for a plastic bag because it has no value for him, and that is why the bag is preferred as a throw in the street or on trees until it reaches the water and causes problems for marine life.” .
The owner of the factory believes that one of the reasons for companies' reluctance to buy biodegradable bags is their higher price than traditional bags, as the price of a ton exceeds 2000 pounds in addition to the price of a ton of raw material, which leads to some company owners boycotting their purchase under the pretext of saving some financial expenses. .
The factory workers also think that it is better for the product they are working on to be environmentally friendly, as the presence of these bags lying on the sidewalks greatly affects the aesthetic appearance of the streets, according to Ahmed Mohamed, 27 years old, one of the factory workers, and responsible for printing the bags, It is imperative that everyone takes into account the rights of the environment over them, so achieving the maximum possible profits should not be considered at the expense of the cleanliness of the environment and that there must be conscious initiatives and a complete ban on the use of those non-biodegradable bags: “Working in a grocery store for 11 years in the field of plastic, and from a year Exactly, we started working on biodegradable bags, and since then all my colleagues and I aim to produce environmentally friendly bags, and day after day I meet the management holding meetings with us in order to improve the quality of our product so that we can compete with others, especially since our price is expensive because it adds to it the wish of the biodegradable raw material ». .