Zabbaleen Products: Turning Trash into Gold
Ezz Al-Turkey
Located in the heart of Cairo, the Zabbaleen City (Garbage City), is where trash is turned into gold. The Zabbaleen (Garbage People), who make their living by gathering and recycling waste, have developed their own industry and economy. These Zabbaleen are reputed to have one of the greatest recycling rates in the world. Approximately 80% of the items that arrive there are given new life. But to understand how garbage collection snowballed into such a huge industry, we have to first look at the city’s origins.
Zabbaleen City started in the 1940s as a neighborhood that predominantly housed garbage collectors. A bad crop and severe drought in Upper Egypt caused many Christian farmers to migrate to the city in search of employment. They were able to farm pigs, and fed the pigs food waste that Cairo residents had disposed of throughout the city. The reason the pigs were so important was that they would help sift through anything unusable, and what would be left are materials that can be recycled and turned into profit. This was the start of what is now recognized as Egypt's unofficial recycling sector, which has grown to incorporate garbage from Cairo’s 22 million residents.
How can a poor town acquire recycling rates this high, which are frequently beyond the reach of big businesses? Expert manual labor is frequently the answer, with every tiny fragment manually arranged and sorted by hand by expert Zabbaleen. Then, after acquiring the materials, they’re used in many different workships in the city and the results are some fabulous accessories and hand-made goodies. The materials include almost any and every thing. From tin to plastic to paper to fabric.
After the collection and sorting process, skilled and creative craftswomen in the heart of Cairo make fabulous accessories and home decor by hand. Everything is created from pure waste materials, recycled, and turned into beautiful, distinctive, and functional things. The sources are carefully selected; printed paper is sourced from stores and educational institutions, while scraps and offcuts of new textiles come from textile mills.
The creators work with the Association for the Protection of the Environment (A.P.E.), an Egyptian non-governmental organization that has been collaborating with the Zabbaleen for 35 years. The products are then purchased from these local handcrafters and a sizeable portion of the earnings go to the A.P.E.'s community outreach initiatives.
From cushion covers made from leftover fabric materials to jewelery made out of recycled soda cans to fabulous handbags made from recycled coffee capsules, the Zabbaleen collection is not only diverse and incredibly creative, but also supports the local community of workers and helps towards a healthier and greener planet.
The best part is you can shop this collection online from the comfort of your own home. Click here to visit the official Zabbaleen website.