'Bekia' Buys Household Scrap for Goods, Services

Bekia is an Egyptian project that was created by two friends who graduated from faculty of engineering 2016 in one of Egypt's high institutions. In this project, they collect trashes then they send them to factories to recycle it in an organized way compared to the system adopted by old 'Bekia'.

[caption id="attachment_56638" align="alignright" width="296"] the old Bekia man[/caption]

The Egyptian society are familiar with 'Bekia' trader since a long time ago; he is a person walks on streets with a cart pulled by a donkey saying “I take anything old for sale.” He buys old things like appliances, old furniture, and old books.

The establisher of the project Mohamed Zohdi said that the idea started 3 years ago with his friend; the company had collected 20 thousand tons rubbish from 20 different areas and more than 10 thousand customers in Cairo and Giza.

More than 70% customers continued to deal with the company after their first time , which consists of 13 persons without resorting to advertising means.

[caption id="attachment_56633" align="alignleft" width="271"] cooking oil[/caption]

Customers get paid for selling old items like cooking oil, rice, sugar and macaroni. He also said that through dealing with the suppliers, they got these items as they offer these supplies with a price lower than the wholesale price.

“This process is conducted through our website; the customer chooses from 20 items the items that he has then the value of what he has from items is estimated through its weight, but the plastic trays are estimated through its numbers," Zohdi said.

"Then its value is determined by points and he can know the equivalent of these points of goods through the website, then he enters his personal data in order for the company to deliver to him what he has chosen."

[caption id="attachment_56634" align="alignright" width="272"] plastic items[/caption]

He also pointed to that the metal, glassy and plastic items have its own factory to recycle them, but the used oil is transferred to Biofuel, which is exported abroad.

The next step that 'Bekia' will take is to establish its own factories, in addition to increasing more items and goods.

[caption id="attachment_56639" align="alignleft" width="239"] Mohamed Zohdi the establisher of "Bekia"[/caption]

Zohdi concluded by saying that this company is unique in Egypt but many companies were established after it. He hopes to cover many provinces in Egypt and to get rid of the rubbish that is considered as a big deal bringing in millions of pounds.

He also wishes to increase community awareness toward this issue, the importance of recycling items and distinguishing between different items before dumping them in the garbage.

Contributed by: Menna Seliem