Known as Garbage City, Manshiyat naser is an area of Cairo home to mostly Coptic Christians and a growing Muslim population. Each day, zabaleen (Arabic for garbage collectors) collect one-third of Cairo's garbage, about 4,500 tons, and bring it back to their homes in Garbage City where it is sorted by men, women, and children. The remainder of the city's trash is dumped in the streets, alleyways, and building corners where dogs, cats, and goats scavenge it for food.
After sorting the trash, recyclables such as glass, aluminum, and paper are sold to small factories that prepare the items to be reused or resold again. Food waste was once fed to pigs, which were then sold for their meat—a way of living that ostracized the Christian zabaleen from their Muslim neighbors. However, after the outbreak of H1N1, Egypt ordered the mandatory slaughter of all pigs in an effort to prevent the disease within national borders; which created a hard blow to the already miniscule income of Garbage City's residents.
Despite the health risks, laborious work, and lack of governmental support, the zabaleen recycle 85% of the trash they collect—a high rate by any standards, but even more impressive considering their simplistic methods.
"They have created what is arguably one of the world's most efficient resource-recovery and waste recycling-systems."
-Wael Salah Fahmi,
Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Helwan University in Cairo
0 comments:
Post a Comment