Cairo’s Garbage City

Garbage is a serious problem in Cairo. Like other big cities, solid waste management is a huge challenge. The city produces more than 15,000 tons of solid waste every day which is putting tremendous strain on city’s infrastructure and their system for getting rid of it isn’t working.

In most "civilized" nations, the recycling of 20-25% of all waste is considered a good thing and, in most circles, shows an environmentally friendly community. On an earlier tour, we drove by and had a glimpse of an area that is called Garbage City. We were curious about why it is called this so I did a little research.

Actually the area is really called Manshiyat Nasser but it is more popularly known as “Garbage City”. It is a slum settlement with a population of around 60,000 on the outskirts of the Moqattam Hills, within Cairo’s sprawling metropolitan area.

The village is notable for having nearly every space of it covered in garbage, including the streets and rooftops of the settlement. These piles of garbage are the result of the Cairo Metropolitan Area having never established an efficient garbage collecting system, despite having a population of over 20 million people.

The inhabitants of Manshiyat Nasser, mostly Coptic Christians, have filled this gap for the past 70 years. These informal garbage collectors, called the Zabbaleen or “Garbage people,“ collect the garbage of Cairo’s residents in a door-to-door service for a small fee and then transport it via donkey carts or pick-up trucks to their homes in Manshiyat Nasser. Once home, they sort the garbage for recyclable material. The collecting of the trash is traditionally the men’s work, while women and children sort the garbage.

Although it seems very old-fashioned, the efficiency of the recycling system of the Zabbaleen is remarkable. Almost 80 percent of the garbage is recycled, which is four times the percentage most Western recycling companies produce.

Living conditions are poor in Manshiyat Nasser and the living situation is very unhealthy. We were going to do a tour to this place and it was recommended that we never open the windows or get out of the car. During the last years, the lives of the Zabbaleen have gotten worse as a result of two decisions of the Cairo municipal government. In 2003 the government hired private companies for the garbage disposal, which today the Zabbaleen have to compete against.

Six years later, in a preventive measure against the threat of an outbreak of the swine flu, the Cairo government ordered the culling of all 350,000 pigs in Manshiyat Nasser. Traditionally, pigs have always been an important factor in the lives of the Zabbaleen, since they cleared the garbage of all organic waste and their meat was later sold to hotels and restaurants catering to non-Muslim tourists.

The village has received a lot of attention following the release of the 2009 documentary film Garbage Dreams, which won the Al Gore Reel Current Award. Since the release of the film, Manshiyat Nasser has become something of an off-the-beaten-path tourist attraction for adventuresome individuals. We just ran out of time or we would have gone.

Here is a blurb that I found about the documentary:

“Conceived and directed by Mai Iskander, "Garbage Dreams" largely follows the lives of a group of four young members of the Zaballeen community as they deal with life, growing up, jobs and social expectations. The four include: 1) 17-year-old Adham, who has become the man of the house after his father was jailed for attempting to build Adham an apartment without the proper permits, 2) 16-year-old Osama, an immature young man whose difficulty holding a job for more than a month is having increasingly negative consequences, 3) 18-year-old Nabil, who dreams of opening a can-recycling shop of his own but is aware that the Zaballeens may not have much of a future in the business, and 4) Laila, a community nurse who attempts to keep the Zaballeens healthy while helping to organize their efforts to keep waste disposal in their daily lives.

While Iskander is clearly sympathetic to the Zaballeens, she's quite balanced in the ways that she shares life in the community, which often appears as one huge trash dump with piles upon piles of all sorts of waste in streets, alleys and on rooftops. Similarly, while Iskander paints a portrait of a faithful and dutiful people, she doesn't hide away their quirks and weaknesses.

Osama is clearly portrayed as a frequent screw-up, while Adham struggles to be the "man of the house" and frequently borders on abuse with his sister. Nabil longs for a wife, while Laila appears to be a single mother in a society where this can be frowned upon. Yet, all of them are united by a commitment to their longstanding way of life and their acceptance that this life is how God would will it to be for them. Living in conditions that even the most poverty-stricken in the United States would consider unimaginable, the Zaballeens find immense joy and happiness in living their lives humbly.

"Garbage Dreams" is awesomely photographed, though the editing occasionally feels a touch choppy with some scenes feeling a touch disconnected and awkwardly placed such as the scene when Adham finds himself part of a team sent abroad to study waste disposal in Wales. This also begs the question "If this community is so poverty stricken who sent the team abroad?"

Simultaneously charming and a bit humbling, "Garbage Dreams" is an entertaining and informative documentary examining an Egyptian community I dare say few even realize existed. Using the American capitalist mentality, it's easy to understand why Cairo would seek newer, more efficient ways of waste disposal, but by the end of "Garbage Dreams" it becomes clear that, despite their antiquated methods, the Zaballeens not only serve their community faithfully and effectively but are also doing more than virtually any other waste disposal firm in the world for the environment.”Read more