Tire .. Egyptian fishermen increase their income by removing bags and plastic items from the Nile

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For 17 years, Muhammad Nassar has earned his family of five by fishing on the Nile, near the banks of the small Qorsaya island, not far from the center of Cairo.

But the 58-year-old says the amount of fish caught by fishermen like him is decreasing annually after the riverbed is filled with plastic containers, bags and other waste.

Nassar said fish go into these bottles and spend them.

A local environmental group called "Farry Nile" asked the island's fishermen to use their boats to collect bottles.

The group says it is buying the packaging at a price higher than the market price offered by dealers or recycling plants.

The initiative provides a sustainable solution to help cleanse the Nile, while providing an additional source of income for fishermen, including Nassar.

 Nassar, who earns about 100 pounds a day after six hours of fishing, can now earn an extra 200 pounds by collecting bottles.

With the help of more than 40 fishermen, Free Nile last year collected about 18 tons of plastic bottles, most of which were sold to recyclers.

At Bareeq, plastic bottles collected by fishermen are being reprocessed.

Plant managers say they never get the quantities needed for reprocessing.

But the production of recycled plastic increases with the tons the fishermen provide.

Cairo - Reuters

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