GARBAGE AND ANIMALS
The Zabbaleen today are descendants of farmers migrating to Egypt from the Dekhla Oasis around 1940 negotiating with the Wahi to becoming garbage collectors. They sort through household garbage, recycling and selling objects of value and feeding their livestock including pigs and goats with organic waste since 1940. Since then, they have created an efficient ecosystem that utilizes garbage as the prime medium or commodity. Garbage gives definition to their identity that informs their lives. Garbage is not just garbage to the Zabbaleen. They view garbage collecting as an opportunity rather than a necessity. It has social, political, religious, economical, agriculture, and architecture implications which makes it an essential medium to their way of life. Because of the integration of their lives with garbage, the Zabbaleen are treated as second-class citizens. However, they have created an ecosystem that is crucial for Cairo to function. They collect roughly 16,500 tons of trash a day in the city of 18 million people. 60% of that waste is food waste which is an excellent source of food for their livestock. The waste from their livestock is used as compost which can be utilized as fertilizer for agriculture. Another aspect of the recycling process is the sorting and selling of garbage materials. Those materials are then shredded, washed, dried, melted, cooled, and/or ground into materials such as recovered plastics which is then sold to be used in products such as clothing. Through this recycling process, Cairo's economy is enhanced by linking it to local and global markets which supports the national income of Egypt.
Recycling is the livelihood of the Zabbaleen. They take more care in the possibility that the government will impede their garbage culture than sanitation, education, or the environment. Without garbage they are not the Zabbaleen, and without the Zabbaleen, garbage would be mere garbage. The Zabbaleen need garbage as much as garbage needs them. Decades of corruption within the Egyptian government has generated an erosion of municipal services especially garbage collection in which the Zabbaleen orchestrate to fill the gap. Many actions were taken to socially reconstruct the Zabbaleen from a garbage culture into a more sanitary life. Though diseases can be rampart within who sort and distribute the garbage, it is still part of their identity. Instead of ridding them of their identity, the government should help evolve their garbage culture into a more sanitary one. First, the government took advantage of the swine flu epidemic and subsequently culled or selectively slaughtered an estimated 300,000 pigs. This severely impacted the recycling process which was previously stated was 60% of the 16,500 tons of garbage recycled was through using pigs and other livestock. Second, the Zabbaleen are Coptic Christians a minority in Egypt while Muslims are the majority. Religiously, pigs are not welcomed in Egypt as part of Islam which prohibits the eating of pork. Such sentiment reinforces the culling of 300,000 pigs. Without pigs, organic waste is mainly left rotting away on the streets. Pigs make up a substantial amount of the Zabbaleen's livestock.
The lack of services of the Zabbaleen due to all the impediments placed upon their garbage culture soon took its toll on the city. The streets became almost impassible with garbage lining the street. The sight and smell of garbage on the streets hid the architecture that once enjoyed visual prominence. Garbage became the focal point on the street level instead of the architecture. It is not just the architecture of Cairo that suffers but Cairo's economy, society, and agriculture without the Zabbaleen's garbage collecting culture. Efforts to remove that culture resulted in failures. Garbage collecting culture of the Zabbaleen has become part of Cairo's culture. The city cannot function without it and the Zabbaleen's garbage culture cannot function without city.