Egypt is one of three partner countries in the Circular Electronics Initiative (CEI), a Swiss-funded programme (2025–2029) building on the legacy of the SRI programme and implemented with the Sustainable Innovation Hub.
The Circular Economy Initiative (CEI) in Egypt builds on more than a decade of progress in e-waste management and a strong legal foundation, focusing on translating policy into practical implementation. The country has been supported through the previous SRI programme between 2013 – 2025. With a solid legal framework already established by Law 202/2020 and its Executive Regulation, CEI aligns national priorities with international best practices to strengthen systems for collection, recycling, and monitoring, while promoting inclusivity through the integration of the informal sector and advancing workforce development. Financial sustainability is supported through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mechanisms embedded across the programme’s outcomes.
Organized around the four overarching CEI outcomes (Policy, Normative, Collection & Treatment and Monitoring), Egypt will concentrate on consolidating and building upon the results achieved under the SRI programme.
Developing national e-waste policies, EPR-based legislation and empowering public institutions.
Defining environmental and social standards, conformity assessment schemes and independent auditing and enforcement.
Strengthening collection systems, treatment, hazardous fraction solutions, and progressive formalization.
Building robust statistics on products and e-waste flows to measure progress and support EPR financing.
Building on the existing legal framework, the CEI programme expands EPR to cover new categories, such as cooling appliances and solar panels, and promoting circular economy practices through updating regulations, policies, financing mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement.
Building on the previously developed e-waste standards, normative requirements will be further strengthened and institutionalized. Through pilot audits and a conformity assessment scheme, CEI aims to ensure that standards are effectively applied, creating a credible, scalable, and self-sustaining framework for compliant and environmentally sound e-waste management.
As part of SRI the E-Khorda Incubation Programme has nurtured SMEs and entrepreneurs, with 3 successful businesses focusing on lithium-battery recycling and e-waste repurposing. Based on this success CEI will continue strengthening Egypt’s e-waste collection, recycling, and treatment systems by piloting scalable, practical, and circular economy–based solutions.
Furthermore CEI will institutionalize a comprehensive monitoring system to track e-waste flows and progress toward circular economy objectives. This will be crucial for evidence-based decision-making towards a fully functioning e-waste management system in Egypt .
This includes Battarity, which works on establishing Egypt’s first lithium battery recycling plant
Egypt reaches 27 licensed WEEE and 9 battery recycling facilities.
Imposes legal obligations.
Clarifies legal guidelines for e-waste handling, collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal.
Establishes a legal framework for e-waste management and introduces EPR.
Introduces streamlined licensing for industrial facilities, including e-waste recyclers