An Egyptian young man turns waste into gold

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.

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' house in Tanta, 90 kilometers north of the capital, Cairo.

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 "Achievement". The prize for the winner of the competition was $10,000.

“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.

Hence, he came up with the idea of establishing Recyclobekia, whose name was borrowed from the two Arabic words in the Egyptian culture, "ruba bekia", which means "old things", and is usually heard on the streets of Cairo when buyers of old things call out to buy discarded household items.

Today, Hamdan employs 20 people in 4 stores, and the young businessman sells electronic waste worth $2.4 million annually.

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.