12.2.3 Policy waste disposal - hazardous materials

2022-2023

ASTMT is dedicated to the proper management of hazardous waste disposal as part of its commitment to sustainability, safety, and environmental responsibility. Through its Consumption and Recycling Policy, the institution provides clear guidelines for handling, storing, and disposing of hazardous materials in alignment with national and international safety standards. Hazardous substances must be stored in designated, secure cabinets, such as those for flammable materials, with strict enforcement both before and after use to mitigate risks, protect human health, and prevent environmental contamination. These measures not only ensure compliance with safety regulations but also reflect ASTMT’s dedication to reducing waste, reusing resources, and minimizing environmental harm. By integrating these practices into its operations, ASTMT reaffirms its role as a forward-thinking institution, striving to balance operational needs with environmental stewardship and community well-being. The following section indicating the Consumption and Recycling Policy that AASTMT is following. Point number 4 under title “The Waste Treatment Progressive System and Stages Incorporates”.

Consumption and Recycling Policy

  1. Introduction

The huge pressure on environmental resources, increasing greenhouse gases, unprecedented rates of CO2 emissions, rising sea levels, pollution, overpopulation, resource waste, and land degradation affect the current and future generations. They face surmountable challenges due to climate change, resource scarcity, waste management, and insufficient recycling practices. Recycling is a cornerstone of addressing these issues, as it reduces resource waste, alleviates pollution, and contributes to managing land degradation. AASTMT has established policies to achieve sustainable development goals, helping uphold the University's Environmental Change and Social Duty Policy and keep the surrounding society and the community in good health and safe.

The policy places strong emphasis on recycling to lessen negative natural effects emerging from our era of waste raising, looking to foresee, reuse, recycle, repurpose, and decrease waste from our activity. Recycling is further integrated into the Policy, which likewise plans to guarantee that AASTMT oversees waste and recycling issues as per the counteraction of contamination and consistent with natural enactment. Recycling serves as a key strategy in fulfilling these commitments and creating a sustainable environment for all.

  1. Scope

It is the responsibility of all employees, students, and contractors working to handle, deal with, and store all kinds of waste, including hazardous materials and other types of waste, with a strong emphasis on recycling. Recycling should be a priority at every level of waste management, ensuring that materials are sorted, processed, and reused whenever possible. In addition, assign the person who is responsible for these materials to oversee their recycling and disposal in the most suitable and environmentally friendly way. Recycling hazardous materials and other types of waste not only minimizes environmental harm but also aligns with sustainable waste management practices. Recycling initiatives should be integrated into all handling and disposal processes to support the university’s environmental goals.


  1. Aims of the Policy

The AASTMT policy considers end-of-life disposal costs and environmental impacts when making acquisition decisions involving the construction of new or renovated facilities. 

AASTMT receives the 'waste order' of Prevention, reuse, reusing, and other recuperation and removal. AASTMT executes cycles, methods, and activities that guarantee consistency with ecological enactment and best practice, to lessen the general waste produced and forestall waste creation at every possible opportunity. Moreover, AASTMT is committed to measuring and weighing the amount of waste generated to track the waste and to find the best methods to reduce or recycle it.

  1. Procedures

The Waste Treatment Progressive System and Stages Incorporates:

Prevention

  • Utilizing less material in the plan; keeping items for more; utilizing less unsafe material.
  • Reduce landfill waste and boost the usage of reusable, biodegradable, and recyclable materials.

RE-USE

  • Getting ready for re-use; cleaning; fixing, restoring.
  • Reduce the usage of single-use packaging. Reducing single-use packaging such as coffee cups and increasing the usage of reusable packaging


Recycle

  • Transforming waste disposal into another substance or item, including fertilizing the soil.
  • Anaerobic assimilation – transformation to biogas for power age; burning with energy recuperation.


Disposal

  • Reduce the disposal of items and send them by specialized to landfill to bury the hazardous materials.
  • Tracking the disposal items through a third party which evaluates the amount and the cost of the disposal items.


Ethical Sourcing of Food and Supplies

AASTMT is seeking to reduce food waste as much as we can through using food preservation methods and vermicomposting practices. The university is committed to delivering healthy food for all parties in the university including food on Campus, Residences, and employees whether vegetarian or others. AASTMT makes sure that the food is available at each level to guarantee healthy food for ASTMT’s stakeholders. However, food waste is still a problem for AASTMT. Therefore, AASTMT is applying the following procedures to use the waste of food in an appropriate way:

  1. Develop a monitoring system for food donations by using food waste.
  2. Most of the food waste produced is recorded and weighed to be sent to a device that produces bio-fertilizer for the green areas.
  3. Some of the waste of food is used to feed the animals like (dogs, and cats,


  1. Policy Statement

The AASTMT seeks to implement ethical and sustainable practices on all of its campuses. Therefore, the AASTMT has taken crucial measures to implement these practices, such as ecological practices and corporate social responsibility. Through the exchange of information within the Academy's supply chain, these food ethics and practices enable AASTMT to ensure the transparency of information about all suppliers.

  • Trusted suppliers

To accomplish supply chain transparency, one of the primary goals of AASTMT is to identify the most reliable and reputable partners who share the same ethical practices, objectives, and data. To accomplish ethical and sustainable practices, the first step is to identify the most suitable suppliers.

  • Secure Relationships

The interaction with suppliers is the second step to keep secure relationships between partners and to reduce the risk. AASTMT is seeking to build a platform and application to increase communication and share important information. That would give the suppliers and partners access to the internal systems they need based on their roles within the ecosystem, sustainability practices, and the food ethics of AASTMT.

  • Tracing the food supplies

Through utilizing new technologies such as block chain technology, AASTMT plays a crucial role in facilitating the monitoring and tracing of the origin of food. It allows the AASTMT to trace the origin of food and ensure its safe delivery to campuses.

  • Evaluation of the process

AASTMT is monitoring the overall processes between its partners to guarantee healthy and sustainable food for students, staff, and Residents. Based on this monitoring, errors must be fixed, and corrective action must be taken.

AASTMT guarantees that we are conforming to guidelines, enactment, and best practices to limit the danger of prompt and future contamination or mischief to wellbeing when completing operational exercises.

  1. Actions
  • A proposition to build a Waste Management Centre throughout all AASTMT campuses to oversee every aspect of waste management within the Academy, and to recycle all type of materials generated.
  • AASTMT is about to build a packaging lab, this lab is aiming to act as a hub providing packaging services consultancy for Egyptian and research on the field of packaging supply chain. The materials of this lab will be extracted from cartoon and plastic waste from the AASTMT campus to produce packaging prototype designs.
  • AASTMT has halted the utilization of 'single use' plastics nearby utilizing a blend of elective materials and the suspension of deals of plastic filtered water nearby.
  • AASTMT perceives the unfavorable effect of plastic waste, from creation through to removal. Plastic contamination can destructively affect the marine climate, and the College is looking to diminish plastic use and wastage nearby. The accompanying activities have been received to advance this point with staff and understudies:
  • Single-use plastics in catering (food bundling, dispensable coffee cups, cutlery) have been supplanted with compostable catering supplies in all College food outlets, to lessen plastic waste nearby.
  • AASTMT intends to keep on diminishing waste by investigating new items and administrations which will help with accomplishing decreased plastics utilization and waste.
  • AASTMT will consider the hazardous materials that can be hurtful to the well-being or the climate. It incorporates irresistible organic/clinical waste, synthetics, solvents, pesticides, glaring light cylinders, refrigeration hardware containing ozone, non-eatable oils, batteries, asbestos, and paints. AASTMT will have an agreement with a third party to landfill these materials in a landfill area.
  • The AASTMT will oversee, so far as is sensibly practicable, all dangerous waste exercises fall under its influence in a way, for example, to limit the mischief to human wellbeing or the climate.
  • AASTMT will create and impart systems to empower workers to follow their “obligation of care” for the administration of risky wastes and screen these methods to guarantee consistency.


  1. Objectives:

Waste ought to be forestalled or limited at every possible opportunity. AASTMT empowers staff, Students, and employers to limit plastic and cartoon waste, in addition to increasing the awareness about the method to minimize disposable items.


  1. Review Program

Document control

Policy title:

Consumption and Recycling Policy

Date created:

May 2019

Approving body:

SDG workforce committee

Version:

4

Last review date

2024

Next review date:

2025

Policy owner:


  • Material Affairs and Logistics department,
  • Facilities, Maintenance department,
  • Nutrition Affairs Management

Lead contact:


  • Head of Facilities and Logistics Department,
  • Head of the Facilities at the Facilities and Maintenance Department,
  • Director of the Department of Nutrition Affairs

Approval Signature

Dean of Scientific Research and Innovation

You can read our Consumption and Recycling Policy   on AASTMT website.



More activities are applied and practiced in the AASTMT.

AASTMT participation in the meetings of the follow-up team concerned with the international environmental agreements of chemicals and hazardous waste at the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment

The AASTMT actively participated in the meetings of the follow-up team focused on international environmental agreements related to chemicals and hazardous waste at the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment. This involvement underscores AASTMT's commitment to SDG12 by promoting initiatives that enhance waste management practices. A key focus of these discussions was training participants to conduct long-term monitoring of beach litter, which is essential for identifying pollution sources and developing effective prevention strategies. The AASTMT's collaboration within the TouMali project emphasizes the importance of recycling, increasing recycling rates, and minimizing landfill waste, thus contributing significantly to environmental sustainability and marine ecosystem protection.

AASTMT participation in the meetings

Arab Academy Students Explore Environmental Training and Collaboration with Nahdet Misr for Modern Environmental Services

Nahdet Misr for Modern Environmental Services, a subsidiary of Arab Contractors, welcomed a delegation of students from the Arab Academy for Science and Technology at its headquarters in Moharram Bek. This visit was part of the memorandum of understanding regarding training to enhance the capabilities of human resources.

The student delegation was received by several company officials, including: Mr. Mohamed El-Saeed, Head of Environmental Treatment Sector and Medical Waste Management, Mr. Ahmed Tawfik, Head of Research and Development, Ms. Rita Elias, Office Manager of the Vice Chairman

The delegation visited the hazardous medical waste treatment center to learn about treatment methods and safe disposal practices in accordance with legal and environmental standards.

After the field tour, the delegation attended a meeting to learn about the company’s various activities and explore cooperation opportunities between the company and the Academy in the environmental sector.

Arab Academy Students Explore Environmental Training and Collaboration with Nahdet Misr for Modern Environmental Services

Specialized Training course

Oil Spill Response (IMO Level I)

In order to increase environmental awareness and provide participants with the necessary skills for environmental protection and crisis management, the Environment Protection and Crisis Management Centre at AASTMT's Alexandria Abu Kir campus offers a thorough paid training program called Environment Protection and Crisis Management. A number of specialised courses are offered in this program, including Oil Spill Response (IMO Level I), which addresses important subjects like the handling of oily wastes in the maritime industry, including disposal, storage, and transportation. The training offers useful insights into managing hazardous waste, minimising environmental impact, and encouraging sustainable production practices in maritime environments by covering important topics like waste disposal and sustainable waste management. This program demonstrates AASTMT's dedication to promoting environmental awareness and equipping people to act effectively in emergency situations, all while advancing a sustainable future.

Oil Spill Response (IMO Level I)

Oil Spill Response (IMO Level I)


Undergraduate Courses

Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Industrial Water Waste Management is an undergraduate course offered in the 7th term of study by the Chemical and Petrochemical Engineering department at the College of Engineering and Technology, AASTMT. Its goal is to equip students with the knowledge and abilities necessary to handle and treat industrial water waste efficiently. In order to lessen the environmental impact of industrial processes, this course covers sustainable production, waste management strategies, and fundamental waste disposal practices. Students gain practical knowledge of cutting-edge techniques for reducing hazardous waste, recycling and reusing wastewater, and improving sustainability in industrial environments. AASTMT plays a vital role in encouraging ecologically conscious practices and fostering cleaner, more sustainable industries by providing aspiring engineers with these essential skills.

Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Industrial Wastewater Treatment


Management of Medical and Biohazardous Waste Disposal


The AASTMT complies rigorously with Egyptian Law No. 202 of 2020, which regulates the handling of medical and biohazardous waste, encompassing chemical and biological waste. AASTMT acknowledges the significance of appropriate waste disposal to safeguard public health and the environment. The medical and biohazardous waste produced on its campuses is governed by a detailed procedure termed the Management of Medical and Biohazardous Waste Disposal, which guarantees compliance with designated handling and disposal protocols for the different categories of this waste. To ensure compliance and efficiency, waste is picked up every three days by Nahdet Misr Company, a certified waste management service provider. This methodical approach demonstrates AASTMT's dedication to sustainable and legally compliant waste management practices.


Disposal Procedures at The College Of Pharmacy


2021 - 2022

AASTMT is endeavoring to properly dispose of hazard waste. All hazardous materials must be stored in suitable cabinets, such as flammable material storage cabinets, both before and after use for protection.

AASTMT Consumption and Recycling Policy includes the processes of hazardous material.

Read our Consumption and Recycling Policy statement

German-African Mediterranean Cooperation Toward Prevention of Marine Litter
Within the framework of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport’s interest in participating in international conferences, the Vice President of the Academy and Professor at the Institute of Basic and Applied Sciences - Faculty of Engineering and Technology participated in the Climate Summit Conference by presenting a lecture entitled: Sharm El-Sheikh. The session is titled “German African Mediterranean Cooperation Toward Prevention of Marine Litter”. This is in the axis of Raising the African coordination and awareness on waste to reduce the impact on the natural ecosystem, which was managed by the environment ministers of Egypt, Gabon, and Senegal.

German African Mediterranean Cooperation Toward on Social media

German-Egyptian SME Training and Exchange Program in Waste Management

The Faculty of Engineering and Technology family is pleased to extend its sincere congratulations to Dr. Mohamed Khamis Hassan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Administrative Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Headquarters in Abu Qir, on the occasion of the victory of the project submitted by him in cooperation with one of the Egyptian companies working in the field of waste recycling, and by participating in the training and exchange project presented by German Aid. “German-Egyptian SME Training and Exchange Program in Waste Management”. This came out of the state’s interest in climate change and reducing polluting emissions and considering Egypt’s hosting of the COP27 climate conference and the research efforts made at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at the main headquarters.

Event photos on social media