InfoSearched
Published -
- April 6, 2020
- 1:11 pm
Tens of thousands of people live in Zabbaleen, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, they all make a living out of recycling the entire capital city’s refuse.
Their whole town is practically a giant dump and it provides them with almost everything they need: from kids’ toys to fodder for livestock. Even their pigs play an important part in recycling food waste. Most important of all though, the dump provides livelihoods for the people of Zabbaleen.
Every one of the rubbish collectors plays their own part, gathering, transporting or sorting the rubbish. Collectively, everyone in the community performs a highly efficient job of recycling Cairo’s refuse. This allows the trash town to be self-sufficient and largely independent from the rest of the city. The place has its own rules, everyone is allocated their own patch of Cairo, no one would think of collecting from someone else’s area. Zabbaleen even has an unofficial mayor.
Trash town has its own shops, cafes and a local school for the children. Of course it’s every Zabbaleen parent’s dream for their child to get a good education so they can build a better life elsewhere. More commonly though, the kids start working on the dump at a young age and follow in their parents’ footsteps to become rubbish collectors as well. The people of Zabbaleen do wish their lives weren’t as hard but feel no shame in their occupation. They see their work as socially important and pride themselves in providing for their families. After all, it’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.
How do the Zabbaleen make a living in Trash Town?
Trash Town is a community like no other. Located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, it is a place where the residents live on rubbish. Literally.
The people of Trash Town, known as Zabbaleen, are a tight-knit community that has lived here for generations. They are known for their remarkable ability to collect, sort and recycle rubbish from Cairo’s sprawling metropolis.
Zabbaleen translates to “garbage people” in Arabic, and the name is apt. They make their living from the waste generated by more affluent Egyptians. The Zabbaleen gather the rubbish from Cairo and bring it back to their community. It’s here that they sort and recycle it. They are able to make money by selling the recyclables to intermediaries who in turn sell to larger recycling factories.
For a long time, Cairo’s waste management system was not able to keep up with the city’s rapid growth. The Zabbaleen stepped in to fill the gap. Many residents of Trash Town migrated to the city over the years and became experts in waste management. They started in the 1940s, when they first began collecting trash for people who could afford to pay them. As the city grew, so did the Zabbaleen’s workload.
Today, the people of Trash Town are responsible for managing around 60% of Cairo’s waste. They collect on average between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of rubbish per day. Despite the magnitude of the task, it’s still largely a manual process. The residents have an incredible ability to sort and separate the different types of waste using their hands and simple tools like hammers and hooks. They are able to separate plastics, paper, metals and organic waste with incredible accuracy.
Like most communities, Trash Town has its fair share of problems. Many of the residents live in poverty and struggle to make ends meet. Despite the good work that they do, the Zabbaleen are often shunned by society at large. The stigma attached to rubbish collection means that many of them feel undervalued and invisible.
Despite these challenges, the Zabbaleen are a proud people. They have built their community around the principles of hard work, resourcefulness, and self-sufficiency. They see themselves and their work as important contributions to keeping Cairo clean and healthy.
Trash Town is a unique community that has managed to create something valuable out of something that others consider worthless. Their work may not be glamorous, but it is essential. The Zabbaleen are proof that it’s possible to turn waste into something valuable, and that with hard work and perseverance, even the most difficult and challenging situations can be turned into opportunities.
