***additional galleries: the zabaleen of garbage city: Zabaleen_039

The gate to the Cairo suburb of MoqqatamMoqqatam is on the edge of Cairo and 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 4am and again around 9am. The rubbish is taken back to Moqqatam for the women to sit in and sort through. The organic waste is fed to livestock (the Zabaleen are originally swine herders), the rest sorted for recycling. The future of the Zabaleen is uncertain: if the Cairo authorities get their way, this community of around 25,000 Coptic Christians living in a Muslim country will be gone, and with it, their unique lifestyle.

The gate to the Cairo suburb of Moqqatam

Moqqatam is on the edge of Cairo and 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 4am and again around 9am. The rubbish is taken back to Moqqatam for the women to sit in and sort through. The organic waste is fed to livestock (the Zabaleen are originally swine herders), the rest sorted for recycling.

The future of the Zabaleen is uncertain: if the Cairo authorities get their way, this community of around 25,000 Coptic Christians living in a Muslim country will be gone, and with it, their unique lifestyle.