A Country We Love. A Future We Refuse to Lose.
Egypt is not simply a country on a map.
It is a feeling.
It is the smell of the Nile in the evening, the noise of Cairo waking up before sunrise, the streets filled with life, the ancient stones that have survived thousands of years, the Red Sea, the deserts, the villages, the food, the laughter, the family gatherings and the stories passed from one generation to another.
For us, Egypt is home.
I am a half-Egyptian, half-Finnish young man, and throughout my life I have had the privilege of visiting Egypt again and again. Every time I return, I am reminded of just how extraordinary this country truly is.
But there is one thing that has always hurt.
The trash. Not because Egyptians do not love their country. They do. But because something has been allowed to become normal that should never have become normal.
Plastic in the streets. Bottles beside roads. Waste around beautiful places. Rubbish that disappears from one street only to appear somewhere else.
And eventually, I began asking myself a simple question:
If we love Egypt so much, why are we allowing it to become buried beneath its own waste?
— The beginning of Wafary EgyptWafary Egypt did not begin in a boardroom.
It did not begin because somebody discovered a profitable market. It began with a family looking at a country they love and realizing that something had to change.
For me, Egypt has always been a complicated but beautiful part of who I am.
Growing up between Finland and Egypt has given me the opportunity to see both countries from very different perspectives. Finland is known for its cleanliness, its forests, its lakes and its strong culture of protecting the environment.
Egypt is different. Egypt is intense. Egypt is alive.
Egypt is millions of people moving, working, building, cooking, travelling and living every single day. And Egypt is also a country carrying an enormous environmental challenge.
The problem is not that Egypt lacks beauty. The problem is that sometimes we allow our beauty to disappear underneath what we throw away. And that is heartbreaking.
Because when you look at Egypt, you are looking at a civilization that has survived for thousands of years.
The pyramids are still standing. The temples are still standing. The Nile is still flowing. The stories of ancient Egypt have travelled through thousands of years to reach us. Generations came before us and left something behind.
So what are we going to leave behind?
Wafary Egypt is a family project.
It began with a father and his son, but it does not stop there. Karim has two brothers who are part of this journey as well.
Three brothers. A father. One family. And one enormous ambition:
To help make Egypt cleaner, more sustainable and more prepared for the future.
We know that we cannot clean an entire country overnight. We are not naïve. We know that Egypt is enormous. We know that there are millions of people, thousands of communities, countless streets and an enormous amount of waste produced every single day.
We know that one website will not solve this. One company will not solve this. One family will not solve this.
But we also believe something very strongly: Every transformation has to start somewhere. And we want Wafary Egypt to be one of those beginnings.
The name Wafary represents the idea of creating a better system around waste, resources and responsibility.
Because recycling should not be something we talk about once a year. It should become part of everyday Egyptian life.
These materials can have another life. And that is where the future begins.
Egypt has heard promises before. Politicians make promises. Companies make promises. Organizations make promises. People make promises.
But the streets do not become cleaner because someone made a promise.
Change happens when systems are built. It happens when people have somewhere to put recyclable waste. It happens when collection actually works. It happens when recycling facilities exist. It happens when businesses participate. It happens when schools teach children that throwing something on the ground is not normal. It happens when communities become proud of keeping their neighborhoods clean.
It happens when people believe that their actions matter. That is the culture we want to help build.
Our goal is to enter 2027 with a clear direction.
Not simply to say: "Egypt should recycle." But to start asking: How?
These are the questions Wafary Egypt wants to work on.
We want to help create practical solutions. We want to connect people and organizations. We want to encourage recycling. We want to support cleaner communities. We want to promote environmental responsibility.
And ultimately, we want to contribute to building an Egypt where waste is treated as a resource rather than simply something to hide.
There is something important about Wafary that we never want to lose.
This is a family project. Three brothers are involved. Each of us comes from the same family, but we are also individuals with our own experiences, ideas and dreams.
Together with our father, we want to build something that is bigger than any one of us.
Because this is not about creating a website. It is not about creating a logo. It is not about creating another environmental campaign that people forget after a few months.
We want to build something that our family can look back on decades from now and say: "We started it."
And perhaps one day our children will continue it. And their children will continue it.When you stand in front of the pyramids, there is a strange feeling. You realize that human beings who lived thousands of years ago built something that we can still see today. They did not know us. They did not know our names. They did not know our technology. But something they created survived.
That makes you think about responsibility.
If ancient Egyptians could build monuments that survived for thousands of years, surely modern Egyptians can build a culture of environmental responsibility that survives for generations.
We don't want Egypt to be remembered only for what it built thousands of years ago. We want future generations to look at Egypt and say:
We want to make something very clear. Wafary Egypt is not here to blame Egyptian people.
The waste problem is bigger than simply saying: "People throw garbage on the street."
Why does that happen? Are there enough bins? Are collection systems reliable? Are recycling facilities accessible? Are people educated about sorting? Are businesses given incentives? Are recyclable materials actually collected separately? Are communities given practical solutions?
These questions matter. Because if we want people to change their behavior, we need to give them the tools to change.
We do not want shame. We want participation. We do not want people feeling guilty. We want people feeling proud.
Our dream is much larger than one city.
Cairo matters. Alexandria matters. Giza matters. Luxor matters. Aswan matters. Hurghada matters. Sharm El Sheikh matters. Mansoura matters. Port Said matters. Suez matters.
Every city matters. Every village matters. Every street matters. Every beach matters. Every riverbank matters.
Because Egypt is not one place. Egypt is millions of places connected together. And if we want a cleaner Egypt, the change cannot belong to only one neighborhood. It has to become a national movement.
Perhaps the most important part of this entire mission is the next generation.
Children should grow up knowing that recycling is normal. They should know that plastic belongs somewhere better than the soil or the sea. They should understand that keeping their neighborhood clean is everyone's responsibility.
Imagine a child growing up in 2035 thinking: "Of course we recycle, that is just what we do."
That is the Egypt we want to help create.Not through fear. Not through punishment. Through education, infrastructure, and culture.
We are not pretending otherwise. This project will be difficult. There will be obstacles. People will tell us it cannot be done. There will be financial, logistical, and bureaucratic challenges. Days when the problem feels much larger than the solution.
Because waiting for the perfect moment is just another way of never starting at all.
We cannot promise that Wafary Egypt will clean the entire country overnight. That would not be honest. We cannot promise that we will solve the entire waste crisis alone.
But we can make a different promise.
We will keep moving forward. We will learn. We will listen. We will partner with people who understand more than we do. We will look for partners. We will support practical recycling initiatives. We will encourage businesses. We will educate wherever we can.
And we will keep pushing toward a simple truth: Egypt deserves to look as beautiful on the outside as it does in our hearts.
Wafary Egypt is not finished. On the contrary, it is only just beginning.
Today, a family with an idea. Tomorrow, a network of partners. Later, recycling initiatives, collection programs, educational programs, communities, companies, cities.
And one day, perhaps an Egypt where recycling is simply a part of everyday life.
We do not know exactly where this journey will take us, but we know where we want to go.
Toward a cleaner Egypt.
Toward a greener Egypt.
Toward a more responsible Egypt.
Toward an Egypt our children are proud to inherit.
Because Egypt has survived for thousands of years. And our turn has come to protect it.