Informal Egyptian recyclers pushed out

Informal Egyptian recyclers pushed out

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

The new president of Egypt has launched an initiative to clean up the piles of waste that dot the country's urban landscape. However, individuals involved in the country's informal recycling sector worry that they'll be cut out.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, a politician affiliated with the controversial Muslim Brotherhood, has launched the "Clean Homeland" campaign. According to www.allafrica.com [1], the initiative has mobilized volunteers and non-government organizations to clean up the country's streets, particularly in large cities, such as Cairo and Alexandria.

Large waste management firms are also expected to help facilitate the program, reports The Daily News Egypt [2]. However, there are concerns that the campaign will crowd out the Zabbaleen [3], a minority religious community of Coptic Christians, who have served as informal waste collectors who are well respected for recycling much of what they collect, similar to how some of Brazil recycles [4] from its waste stream.

"It's a public relations campaign, not a practical and clear system with a clear solution," said Ezzat Naem Gendy, the chairman of the Garbage Collector Syndicate, to The Daily News.

The Zabbaleen, which were featured in the award-winning documentary Garbage Dreams [5], go door-to-door collecting waste and separating out recyclable commodities that are sold to stores, factories and exporters, achieving recycling rates as high as 85 percent, reports The Daily News. Organic debris is often separated out and fed to animals. According to one expert quoted in the article, incorporating the Zabbaleen into the government's waste management strategy would offer many advantages, offering a more localized and attentive approach that could cover two-thirds Cairo's waste.

The campaign was kicked off during two days late last month, during which 107,000 volunteers from government institutions and civil society organizations removed 203,000 tons of construction debris and 120,000 tons of garbage from the streets of 22 governorates, reports the Egypt Independent [6], citing Yasser Ali, a presidential spokesperson.

According to Ali, via the Independent, the campaign is not a "radical solution" to the problem, but is instead meant to mobilize municipal governments and encourage civic engagement. Additionally, it's not meant to excuse corporations from their responsibility to clean up after themselves, according to Ali.

An opposition party said that this campaign won't solve the problem, according to the Independent.

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