On the outskirts of Cairo sits Mokattam Hills where the Zabbaleen –or garbage people – live. The streets are heaped high w ith solid waste. But the huge piles have been sorted into plastics, textiles, and glass. Greater Cairo’s 60,000 Zabbaleen, a Coptic Christian community of formerly landless and unemployed peasants who migrated to the capital 50 years ago, gather one third of the city’s 10,000 tons of daily garbage. Laila Iskandar has worked with the Zabbaleen since 1982, introducing innovative social and environmental initiatives that have included recycling as much as 80% of the inorganic waste into raw materials and manufactured goods – plastics, rugs, pots, paper and glass. As a result, garbage collectors have begun to break the cycle of poverty. Read more...
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