Canada-based plastic collection and recycling company Plastic Bank has appointed Ahmed Abdelaleem (LinkedIn) to serve as regional head. Prior to the appointment, Abdelaleem held the position of supply chain and operations manager at Plastic Bank for two years. Before joining the company, he held the position of alternative fuels director at Geocycle Egypt, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim. At Geocycle, Abdel Aleem led an initiative to stop burning rice straw — used to produce lightweight cement bricks — in open fields. The initiative helped reduce carbon emissions by 100k tons of CO2.

About Plastic Bank: Plastic Bank is a social enterprise that works on collecting plastic waste, stopping waste from being dumped in the oceans, recycling ecosystems in coastal communities, reprocessing materials to introduce into the global manufacturing supply chain, and offers monetary compensation for plastic waste collectors, according to their website. Plastic Bank currently operates in Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with franchise-based expansion in Cameroon and Thailand.

Plastic Bank in Egypt: Plastic Bank collected 2.7k tons of plastic waste from Egypt in 2021 and aims to collect a total of 5k tons by 2023. In 2022 Plastic Bank planned to recycle 20k kg of plastic produced by German snackmaker Lorenz Snack World factory in Egypt, and celebrated the collection of more than 300 mn plastic bottles with Henkel Egypt in less than two years.