Thoughts on Garbage Dreams

After watching Garbage Dreams I was really surprised to see how passionate the zabaleen are about their profession. Not only is garbage the livelihood for the zabaleen, but the people take pride in their work and see the recycling that they do as being extremely important. As evidenced by the shots of the community meetings, the majority of the people while perhaps not always satisfied with their lot in life nonetheless care deeply for what they do and how well they do it. Mark Kramer’s Dispossessed illustrated this pride to an extent, but I think that seeing the young men in Garbage Dreams on their visit to the new landfill really drove home what it means to be zabaleen and exactly how terrible the threat of the foreign waste disposal companies are. Not only does the newer system of waste disposal essentially displace the zabaleen and push them further into poverty it also completely reverses the rate of recycling. The zabaleen recycle 80% of the garbage they collect while the foreign companies only recycle 20%. This figure alone should be reason enough for Cairo to find a different solution to the city’s garbage problems and slums. Unfortunately I think that Cairo has fallen for the myth of progress. Cairo is too preoccupied with appearing modern and implementing a Western waste disposal system that the city does not see that by “progressing” to match developed countries the it is inadvertently moving backwards in the environmental realm. Obviously there are some benefits to an organized waste disposal system, yet I think that in this case the environmental and social justice issues far outweigh any positives gained by Cairo using foreign companies to handle its garbage.

The recycling rate of the zabaleen also makes me seriously question the technology and efforts that the western world puts into recycling. 80% is extremely high, far higher than the figure that was given when the young men were abroad in Wales or the recycling efforts in the United States.  I think that necessity drives the zabaleen to recycle efficiently, yet I wonder why the developed word cannot achieve the same or higher rates.