Plastic fishing: Fishermen turn to recycling for income

On a boat made from recycled plastic, master fisherman Arafa Gaber recalls the first day he sailed out not only to fish, but to collect plastic waste clogging the Nile near Qanater El-Khayreya, north of Cairo.

It was late 2020. He had just completed a training session with VeryNile, an initiative focused on cleaning the river of plastic waste.

“I went out that day with my son to fish near Qanater. There’s a barrier there where a lot of plastic pile up. After casting the nets, I went over to gather plastic. I thought I’d bring back maybe five kilos of fish and five kilos of plastic. But by the end of the day, I had 30 kilos of plastic and only six kilos of fish,” Arafa told Al Manassa.

VeryNile started as a youth initiative and later gained support from government agencies and civil society. “They used to pay us 11 Egyptian pounds (\$0.63 then) per kilo of plastic,” Arafa said, that profit was “better than what we’d make selling fish in a whole day.” 

This unexpected profit, according to Arafa, eventually changed the minds of fellow fishermen who were initially reluctant to join the initiative. They had feared becoming “trash collectors” instead of respected masters of their craft.

Boats made of the Nile’s waste

Four years later, in November 2024, Arafa launched a new boat into the Nile—lighter and more agile, thanks to panels made from plastic waste collected from the river and repurposed into durable boards.

The initiative had supplied five boats modified with these plastic panels, distributing them to fishermen as part of a broader collaboration under a project titled Floating Forward.

But Arafa’s role has since grown. He now runs a boat repair workshop on Warraq Island and supervises the fitting of the recycled panels. The materials come from bottles and waste gathered during three years of Nile cleanup campaigns.

How plastic boats are made

Turning discarded plastic into functional boat panels is a multi-step process. First, the bottle caps are separated. Then, the bottles are shredded and exposed to high heat before being molded in a thermal press into solid boards which are later used to line the boats’ interiors and prevent leaks.

Arafa explains how the panels have transformed the boats’ design, “Normally, we care about the boat’s length and width—not the weight. Our boats range from 4.5 to 7 meters, which is the largest size allowed for fishing on the Nile. A wooden boat of that size might weigh over 200 kilograms, even the smaller ones weigh around 150 kilos.”

By contrast, the modified 4.5-meter boats weigh just 100–120 kilograms. “It’s not just the plastic that makes the boat lighter,” Arafa said. “We also reuse old wood from broken boats which gets sun-dried and becomes lighter, unlike new wood which still holds moisture.”

While wooden frames are still essential for these boats, Arafa believes they’re getting closer to building a fully plastic boat. “Plastic panels aren’t yet suitable for sealing gaps with fiberglass like wood. That’s why we use wooden ones to line the inside and still rely on wood for the outer frame. Sometimes we use wood for the submerged part and plastic on top. But we’ll get there.”

He points to a precedent in 2018, when a fully plastic boat sailed from Lamu, Kenya as part of a United Nations Environment Program campaign for cleaner seas.

Broader solutions

According to Moheb El-Azzazy, director of the Floating Forward project at the Goethe-Institut in Cairo, modifying the five boats is part of a larger recycling program across the Nile adjacent governorates, including Cairo, Aswan, Assiut, Qena and Beni Suef. The goal is to help fishermen continue both fishing and collecting plastic waste.

“This isn’t the only initiative,” El-Azzazy added. “Other recycling projects are running in partnership with VeryNile and the Ministry of Education.”

“In two years, we’ve researched the causes of Nile pollution and discussed solutions through workshops,” he said. “Many people don’t realize how much improper waste disposal contributes to pollution across the country.”

Solutions, he stressed, depend on collective change “Everyone can help by consuming less and reducing individual waste.”

Plastic everywhere

Egypt is the largest generator of plastic waste in the Arab world. According to the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, the country produces 5.4 million metric tons of plastic annually—a source of livelihood for many Nile fishermen.

“I used to work for a daily wage on other people’s boats. I couldn’t afford my own,” said fisherman Hany Ahmed Khalaf. “Now I have my own boat. There’s less fish these days, but collecting plastic helps me get by.”

More than fish

Hany says the lighter plastic boat makes both fishing and waste collection easier. “I’ve worked on wooden boats. By comparison, these are lighter and easier to row, and can reach farther for fishing or plastic collection.”

On his daily trip, rowing two hours from Qursaya Island to Tura near Helwan and back, he gathers large quantities of waste. “The most common in the water is plastic—it’s everywhere.”

Fellow fisherman Yasser Ali Ahmed agrees. During the summer, he said, collecting plastic is often more profitable than fishing, thanks to the surge in Nile tourism. In winter, tourism declines with the cold weather and school season, reducing plastic waste and income.

“In tough fishing periods, I row from Qursaya to the University Bridge or Tura, collecting bottles and plastic bags,” he said.

“Plastic increases in the summer, making waste collection more lucrative,” Yasser noted. But this pollution, he added, “reduces fish stocks, which is our main work. So now we focus more on plastic because it pays.”

The shift toward waste collection stems largely from the sharp decline in Nile fish production. According to Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics/CAPMAS, the river’s contribution to national fish production fell from 84,500 tons in 2010 to 78,300 tons in 2022.

This marks drop from 2010’s 6.5% share of total production to just 3.9% in 2022. Several Nile fish species have also vanished in that time.

A study published in the Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Economics confirmed that the Nile suffers from severe pollution due to human activity, including industrial and sewage waste dumped into the river and lakes. This pollution has lowered fish yields, incomes, and the number of licensed fishermen from 5,797 in 2010 to just 3,859 by 2019.

Yet the fishermen say the state hasn’t done enough to preserve fish stocks as they point to the reduced release of fish fry in breeding zones and the removal of riverbank reeds, which once provided vital fish habitats.

Fishing with purpose

The fishermen now see themselves as stewards of the river. Climate change and pollution may have driven them from traditional fishing, but they’ve found new purpose in cleanup efforts.

“I didn’t know what pollution or climate change meant,” Arafa said. “But working on a boat made from the plastic we collected with our own hands changed the way we see the Nile. We don't throw leftover food or bottles into the river anymore because we’ll just end up collecting them the next day.”