Clever young Egyptians are helping combat their country's huge waste problem. They are recycling junk-food wrappers, water bottles and other rubbish that usually ends up in landfills or the Nile River.
They are running a factory on the edge of Cairo, Egypt's capital city. Noisy machines gobble up huge amounts of plastic scraps of all colours. The plastic is shredded and turned into a thick liquid.
This sludge – made from all kinds of plastic, even single-use shopping bags – is then moulded into small, heavy bricks. They are used to build pavements.
"Our bricks are twice as strong as concrete," boasts co-founder Khaled Raafat.
Each brick takes about 125 plastic bags out of the environment.
Why this matters
Small acts can have a big impact. By finding new ways to use plastic waste, we can help save the environment.
