Urban Mining
Moqqatam is one of the most extraordinary and hellish suburbs on earth. It is home to a people known as the Zabaleen, said to be the world’s greatest waste recyclers. The Zabaleen, which means plainly enough, "the garbage collectors," pick up around 4,000 tons of Cairo’s waste each day. American researchers have shown that the Zabaleen recycle 85% of this garbage into something useful: a higher rate than anywhere else on the planet. The men do two shifts leaving about 4 in morning and again around 9. The rubbish is taken back to Moqqatam for the women to sit in and sort through. The organic waste is fed to livestock, the rest sorted for recycling. The future of the Zabaleen is uncertain. If the Cairo authorities get their way, this community of 25,000 Coptic Christians living in a Muslim country will be gone, and with it their unique, astonishing lifestyle.
26 comments on the article “Urban Mining”
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beatrice
I wonder how many of the Zabaleen have elevated lead levels, or what their rate of hepatitis infection is. At the risk of sounding like a cultural relativist, this seems like an extraordinarily unhealthy way to live.
beatrice
I wonder how many of the Zabaleen have elevated lead levels, or what their rate of hepatitis infection is. At the risk of sounding like a cultural relativist, this seems like an extraordinarily unhealthy way to live.
Anonymous
Put the waste in a landfill, recycle it in a facility, and limit the input of toxins and heavy metals... give the people solar-powered carts to haul the rubbish away... hire them as the city's waste managers... but as the above poster notes, pollution and contamination probably lead to health damage in many cases.
Background:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-eu-france-obit-sister-emmanuelle,0,2465529.story
Anonymous
Put the waste in a landfill, recycle it in a facility, and limit the input of toxins and heavy metals... give the people solar-powered carts to haul the rubbish away... hire them as the city's waste managers... but as the above poster notes, pollution and contamination probably lead to health damage in many cases.
Background:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-eu-france-obit-sister-emmanuelle,0,2465529.story
alberto
who are these american researchers? i want to meet them. have they really gone to all the dumps in the world? i live in a dump and i haven't seen any americans. mexicocitytraffic.blogspot.com
alberto
who are these american researchers? i want to meet them. have they really gone to all the dumps in the world? i live in a dump and i haven't seen any americans. mexicocitytraffic.blogspot.com
Anonymous
Even though it was good it should have been considered a blog. Again i want to ask where is Kalle?
Anonymous
Even though it was good it should have been considered a blog. Again i want to ask where is Kalle?
I am so wise
This is utterly without content, unquestionably positive on a dubious lifestyle, and failed to provide much in the way of unique insight or even basic information on the group, the culture, or why I should have wasted my time reading this.
I am so wise
This is utterly without content, unquestionably positive on a dubious lifestyle, and failed to provide much in the way of unique insight or even basic information on the group, the culture, or why I should have wasted my time reading this.
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