The Zabaleen of Cairo - waste picking
One of the solutions to the waste problem trialled in Dhaka while we were there, was basically privatisation of the recycling and waste collection. SwissContact had a contract and they rolled out lovely signs telling people how to recycle (at least in the "posh" part of Dhaka where we were living).
The signs were all in English. Most of the people who worked or lived in the area were Bangladeshi - and in rich families where there were "staff" to deal with litter, certainly the staff were very unlikely to read English. The scheme was still chugging a long when when left - but we saw the rubbish being thrown together into one collection cart and then slowly sorted (by hand) round the corner at the big waste bins.
Litter picking. Waste picking. It's a difficult one. One the one hand it can provide an informal recycling and waste management system where a formal one (such as those provided by councils in the UK) does not exist. People who might otherwise struggle to make an income have an opportunity to make an income. Depending on the country, people can earn quite a lot (normally it's men in the litter picking group who earn the most apparently - women, despite doing a lot of it, earn less). But it has downsides - children are often litter picking - they aren't in school, they are exposed to health risks and it can impact on their mental health. It has broader health risks, safety and security risks. There are rubbish dumps which are constantly on fire (Kolkata dump on fire) and those which collapse such as those earlier in 2017 in Ethiopia (Ethiopia waste mountain collapse) and Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka waste landslide ).
On a trip down the Buriganga River in Dhaka last year, on International Women's Day, there were women out and about picking litter out of the huge drains which empty the litter and other waste into the increasingly black and polluted river. It's easy to be saddened and shocked. My then 7 year old daughter said to me "but is it better to have some work than no work?". It made me think about the complexities of the situation with waste management - without a formal system, without jobs, does waste picking provide an opportunity?
There are some (more) positive news stories about waste pickers - see these two from Dhaka and Cairo:
Waste Pickers in Dhaka
Zabaleen in Cairo
I went to Cairo many years ago and went to meet some of the Zabaleen community - the smell was amazing but their ability to make money by holding back the flow of goods (such as plastics or glass) back into the supply chain was very impressive. Privatisation in Cairo was not the solution - the Zabaleen remain part of the solution to a growing waste challenge.
The signs were all in English. Most of the people who worked or lived in the area were Bangladeshi - and in rich families where there were "staff" to deal with litter, certainly the staff were very unlikely to read English. The scheme was still chugging a long when when left - but we saw the rubbish being thrown together into one collection cart and then slowly sorted (by hand) round the corner at the big waste bins.
Litter picking. Waste picking. It's a difficult one. One the one hand it can provide an informal recycling and waste management system where a formal one (such as those provided by councils in the UK) does not exist. People who might otherwise struggle to make an income have an opportunity to make an income. Depending on the country, people can earn quite a lot (normally it's men in the litter picking group who earn the most apparently - women, despite doing a lot of it, earn less). But it has downsides - children are often litter picking - they aren't in school, they are exposed to health risks and it can impact on their mental health. It has broader health risks, safety and security risks. There are rubbish dumps which are constantly on fire (Kolkata dump on fire) and those which collapse such as those earlier in 2017 in Ethiopia (Ethiopia waste mountain collapse) and Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka waste landslide ).
On a trip down the Buriganga River in Dhaka last year, on International Women's Day, there were women out and about picking litter out of the huge drains which empty the litter and other waste into the increasingly black and polluted river. It's easy to be saddened and shocked. My then 7 year old daughter said to me "but is it better to have some work than no work?". It made me think about the complexities of the situation with waste management - without a formal system, without jobs, does waste picking provide an opportunity?
There are some (more) positive news stories about waste pickers - see these two from Dhaka and Cairo:
Waste Pickers in Dhaka
Zabaleen in Cairo
I went to Cairo many years ago and went to meet some of the Zabaleen community - the smell was amazing but their ability to make money by holding back the flow of goods (such as plastics or glass) back into the supply chain was very impressive. Privatisation in Cairo was not the solution - the Zabaleen remain part of the solution to a growing waste challenge.
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