Rice straw recycled into paper to help environment

(19 Oct 2018) LEADIN
A woman in Cairo has created a workshop which recycles rice straw and turns it into paper.
Not only does it cut down on the pollution caused by burning rice straw - it's also created jobs for deaf people.
STORYLINE
Enas Khamies operates a machine inside her workshop in Cairo.
The founder and director of the Al Nafeza Foundation has found a useful way of recycling rice straw - by turning it into paper!
But she explains that the concept is not her own idea.
"The foundation didn't invent this method, it's a Chinese method that they invented 5,000 years ago to turn rice straw into paper," she says.
The Al Nafeza Foundation is a non profit company which specialises in dealing with agricultural waste and protecting the environment.
Khamies says she targeted rice straw since farmers often don't know what to do with it after their rice harvest.
"The farmer does not know how to get rid of it properly, so they burn it," she explains.
Farmers also burn the straw because they believe it helps the fertility of their land - and is a cheap way to dispose of it.
This can be harmful to the environment, adding to the pollution already created from car exhausts and factories.
Since 1999, Egypt's capital Cairo has been experiencing something known as the "black cloud" - and pollution has risen.
The burning of straw has been known to lead to breathing difficulties, increases in asthma attacks and even respiratory failure.
So the Al Nafeza Foundation collects the rice straw from the fields, submerges it in water basins, grinds and filters it then dries it on the walls to create sheets of paper.
But as well as being kind to the environment, Khamies' foundation also helps people who are deaf by creating jobs for them.
"We found that they were able to train in the manufacture of paper and manufacturing products in all its forms and did not find any differences. On the contrary, we found them more focused and more comfortable in dealing with them," she explains.
Speaking through a sign language interpreter, Mahmoud Sayed explains that he first heard about the foundation through friends and after 10 years in the job is: "very happy working here."
The foundation produces an array of products with the rice straw paper: boxes, pictures and envelopes in lots of pretty colours.
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