Looking around Cairo, you might think that garbage is never picked up–but it is, by 65,000 people of the Coptic Christian Zareeb community, known as the zabbalin, the “garbage people.” The Zabbilin are descended from farmers who migrated to Cairo from Northern Egypt in the 1940s. They settled in camps on the city’s outskirts and began collecting waste to earn a living. Currently this community makes a living by collecting garbage from Cairo neighborhoods and then sorting and recycling while feeding the organic waste to the pigs. They manage to recycle about 80% of the waste they collect.
In spite of their efficiency, back in 2004 the government recruited multinational companies and threatening the livelihood of this community. It was a huge failure! The zabbalin did the job better! The government adjusted its policies and officially reinstated about 60 Zareeb communities who took charge of waste disposal in many parts of the city.
This community lives in a district known as “Garbage City” at the base of the eastern edge of the Nile river valley, the Moqattam Hills. It’s a very densely populated area and it’s also where the garbage gets sorted, with apartment block roofs piled high in various stages of recycling and huge bags of garbage on roofs waiting to be sifted. (Note the pigs grazing on the rooftops!) Also, Garbage City is home to an amazing site. See Part 2!
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