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From Cairo's trash, a model of recycling =
Old=20 door-to-door method boasts 85% reuse rate

Jack = Epstein,=20 Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, June 3,=20 2006

Printable=20 Version=20
Email=20 This Article

(06-03) 04:00 PDT Cairo -- At a school unlike = any in=20 the Middle East, 15-year-old Magdi Shenuda learns how to use a = computer to=20 track the number of plastic bottles he recycled in the past month. =

The Recycling School, in a Cairo district noted chiefly for its = garbage=20 dump, teaches about 100 poor children their ABCs, fundamental = health and=20 the arts -- and basic training in the collection and reuse of = trash.=20

Magdi lives in Manshiet Nasser, one of seven Cairo = neighborhoods=20 populated primarily by Coptic Christians who toil as zabaleen -- = Arabic=20 for garbage collectors. For more than five decades, city residents = have=20 relied on their cheap -- less than $1 a month -- door-to-door = service,=20 which hauls away trash by small truck or donkey cart. The zabaleen = spend=20 hours sorting glass, plastic, cardboard, paper, tin and torn = clothes in=20 their communities and sell it to local factories that wash, = compress and=20 resell the materials.=20

Many residents of this poverty-stricken settlement of 40,000 in = an=20 abandoned quarry at the foot of the Muqattam Hills are descendants = of poor=20 farmers who came to Cairo in the 1950s. They turned to garbage = collection=20 because the majority Muslim population -- only 10 percent of = Egypt's 70=20 million people are Coptic Christians -- considers such work = unclean.=20

"Muslims would never do that kind of work," Ali Hussein Yousef, = a Cairo=20 limousine driver and a Muslim, said dismissively.=20

The Egyptian government regards the trash collectors as a = shameful=20 remnant of the past and wants to put them out of business.=20

For three years, municipal authorities have tried to replace = Cairo's=20 estimated 70,000 zabaleen primarily with sanitation companies from = Spain=20 and Italy, which provide their employees with colorful uniforms to = wear as=20 they pick up trash placed on sidewalks in shiny, brand-name trash = cans.=20 Mechanized trucks crush the garbage and take it to newly created = desert=20 landfills.=20

"Egypt is promoting Cairo as a modern city with modern garbage=20 collectors to fit the image," said Emil Nashat Atef Baset, = director of the=20 Garbage Collectors Association for Community Development, a = nonprofit=20 organization that represents zabaleen workers. "They are = embarrassed by=20 the zabaleen."=20

But many Cairo residents still prefer the door-to-door service = and have=20 sued the foreign companies over extra fees for garbage collection = added to=20 their electricity bills. Last year, a Cairo court nullified the = fees,=20 calling them unconstitutional.=20

Moreover, the foreign companies collect only about a third of = the=20 estimated 13,000 tons of garbage left daily by Cairo's 17 million=20 residents, according to a study by Nicholas Hopkins, a professor = of=20 anthropology at the American University in Cairo.=20

"The government doesn't have a system of disposing trash and = solid=20 waste," said Hopkins, "So people depend on the zabaleen."=20

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif conceded that the European companies = had=20 failed so far to win the hearts and trash of many Cairo residents. = "They=20 haven't done a good job," he said. "We are in a race to keep up = with the=20 pace of population growth, but you can't run a country into the = modern age=20 overnight."=20

The zabaleen collect about one-third of Cairo's trash -- 4,500 = tons a=20 day -- while the remainder is dumped anywhere and everywhere. All = across=20 the city, dogs and goats sift through trash piled high along = walls, street=20 corners and narrow streets. These mounds eventually are burned by=20 municipal workers, adding to the already heavy pollution in the = air.=20

In Kafr al Elow, a Muslim community of 5,000 residents 30 miles = south=20 of Cairo, the anarchy of trash is readily apparent.=20

"Every day we sweep it up, and every day people empty their = garbage=20 back on the streets," said Reda Anwar, a 17-year-old trash = collector clad=20 in the colorful green-and-orange uniform of Europa 2000, a private = Egyptian sanitation company that has a contract with the = government.=20

Despite the filth, the health risks -- many zabaleen suffer = from=20 hepatitis -- and low-tech methods, the zabaleen recycle 85 percent = of the=20 trash they collect, while the foreign companies are required to = recycle=20 only 20 percent, Hopkins says.=20

That high recovery rate has attracted admirers. Later this = summer, four=20 students from the Recycling School are scheduled to travel to = Lebanon to=20 teach recycling skills to children in Beirut. And the = overpopulated cities=20 of Manila and Bombay have copied the zabaleen's homespun system.=20

"They have created what is arguably one of the world's most = efficient=20 resource-recovery and waste-recycling systems," Wael Salah Fahmi,=20 professor of architecture and urban design at Helwan University in = Cairo,=20 wrote in a 2005 study.=20

Agaibe Labib started as a garbage collector when he was 10 = years old.=20

As he has done on most days for the past 25 years, Labib leaves = his=20 home in Manshiet Nasser and heads downtown to solicit garbage = door-to-door=20 from his regular customers. When he returns each afternoon, his = entire=20 family -- his wife and four of their five children, ages 3 to 11 = -- helps=20 sort the day's haul for an average monthly income of roughly $75.=20

Like most zabaleen, Labib earns the bulk of his money from = selling bags=20 filled with recycled items to small factories in the neighborhood = that=20 prepare it for reuse and, in some cases, manufacture tourist = souvenirs,=20 shoe heels, coat hangers, bags and mats. Organic waste is fed to = pigs,=20 whose meat they sell to specialty stores, restaurants and hotels = that=20 cater to Westerners.=20

"It's our livelihood. There is nothing else that we can do to = survive,"=20 said Labib.=20

It's a hard existence.=20

Inside dank rooms, in front of homes of reinforced concrete and = along=20 brick walls, pigs, goats and dogs eat rotting produce, while women = and=20 children cast aside dead rodents as they busily separate trash = from=20 recyclable items. Bags filled with glass, plastic, tin, paper and=20 cardboard are piled high along the main avenue and side streets. = Hordes of=20 flies hover over the pungent heaps of trash yet to be sorted. Many = walls=20 are decorated with large crosses and pictures of Jesus.=20

Labib was one of the few zabaleen willing to talk to a reporter = in a=20 community where there is much mistrust of outsiders. Even though = the=20 zabaleen offer a badly needed service, they are scorned by many = Muslims=20 for raising pigs, a source of food forbidden by the Quran.=20

When a reporter snapped a photo of a woman sorting trash in = front of=20 her home, she quickly covered her face while her husband threw a = large=20 piece of cardboard at the reporter, screaming for him to leave=20 immediately.=20

Meanwhile, Labib does not appear worried about the government's = long-standing threat to end his way of life by moving zabaleen = communities=20 to settlements in the eastern desert.=20

"People need us," he said.=20

Chronicle staff writer Jack Epstein recently visited Egypt = on a=20 fellowship sponsored by the International Reporting Project at = Johns=20 Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. = E-mail him=20 at jepstein@sfchronicle.com.=20

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