CAIRO: Under the slogan "Recycling for Culture, a group of Ain Shams University students kicked off an innovative fund-raising initiative for their activities. Alef, a student group concerned with raising cultural awareness, is collecting old newspapers, magazines, books and wallpaper to sell to recycling factories and use the revenues to fund their cultural activities. "Every home and faculty at the university piles up stacks of paper that only crams the space, so it's easy to obtain this resource and profit from it. Besides, it's environmentally friendly, said Mohamed Youssef, who manages the recycling campaign at Alef. Youssef says that one kilogram of recycling paper can fetch between 40 piasters and LE 1. Cairo's Cleaning and Beautification Authority estimates that some 10,000 to 14,000 tons of waste is produced daily. This changed attitude towards recycling will eventually prevail simply since people have no other option because the problem is affecting their day to day life, said Ahmed Dorghamy, an environmental management consultant and ecological activist. "We are no more in the era of taking precautionary measures, we are in a state of crisis management, he said. "Of Egypt's cities, Cairo potentially has the biggest waste disposal problem. As the city has grown, traditional waste disposal practices have [developed into] what is probably the most developed private sector of waste collection and reclamation, said a governmental report recently issued by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs. Several local groups working on this issue individually, like Keep Egypt Clean, Cairo Recyclers, and Wadi Environmental Science Center are now joining forces to increase their collective impact. They also joined the regional Co-operation for the Development of Emerging Countries, a non-profit association promoting intercultural dialogue, fair, sustainable development and human rights. "Each organization has its own style. Some concentrate on awareness, others were more interested in fieldwork so we are trying to build a network so that we think together and act together. We don't want to be isolated islands, Dorghamy said. Although a community of garbage collectors (estimated at approximately 70,000), and four local and European private companies are involved in collecting the city's waste, 30 percent of municipal waste is still not collected. Laila Eskandar, the founder of Community and Institutional Development group (CID), discussed a new waste management system in a lecture at Nahdet El Mahrousa NGO. The system was implemented on an experimental basis in the four Cairo districts of Maadi, Manial, Der El-Malak and El Zawya El Hamra. The new integrated solid waste management system is based on segregating waste by consumers who are expected to place organic and solid waste in separate bags. Solid waste, which forms 30 to 40 percent of the garbage, would be collected by garbage collectors for secondary categorization, recycling and reselling. Organic waste would be delivered to fertilizer factories to produce pure organic fertilizers, while 15 percent of un-recyclable wastes would be thrown in healthy land fills. Each ton provides seven jobs, meaning that the proposed system can provide more than 4,900 jobs. Fertilizers factories will also be subsidized according to the Kyoto agreement for having an environment-friendly production process without harmful waste. The new system has proved its efficiency in raising resident cooperation from 65 to 90 percent and transforming waste management and recycling into a desirable job sector for young people. "Since the beginning, the system put by the government was flawed, Eskandar said, "it was based on a misunderstanding; the garbage collectors consider themselves recyclers and will never accept working as garbage collectors for other companies for a monthly salary. Since the 1980s, garbage collectors have been the target of continuous modernization campaigns by the government; in 1990 they were forced to mechanize their services by replacing donkeys with cars. In 1983, they were given recycling machines with subsidized prices and easy installment plans. They were also trained on how to operate them and market their products. They now have more than 1,000 workshops. However, in 2000, the government signed contracts with European waste management companies to collect the garbage and added a garbage collecting fee to electricity bills, threatening the garbage collectors' community with unemployment since they couldn't ask for fees for their services as they lacked legitimacy. But the contracts between the government and the companies didn't oblige them to offer door to door services like the garbage collectors. Instead, huge collection bins were placed in the street, which later proved to be ineffective because people placed the garbage bags beside, rather than inside them. In some cases, the bins were stolen and the garbage would end up in the middle of the street. Further exacerbating the problem was the government's recent decision to slaughter the country's population of pigs, which are mainly raised by garbage collectors, as a precautionary measure against swine flu. The pigs used to feed on organic waste and thus their absence has led to the garbage collectors having to separate the garbage instantly on the street, leaving behind a huge mess which the foreign companies refused to clean up. "Any system should consider the specific nature of the country in which it is operating and the characteristics of the people, Eskandar said. "One third of Cairo's population lives under the poverty line and some of them are used by recycling brokers to sort garbage on the street to pick out certain materials they can sell, so we can't just leave garbage bins in the street, she added. In Zamalek, according to Eskandar, residents knew that this would happen and refused to have any bins on the street and instead paid the garbage collectors "out of the goodness of their hearts. With the garbage collectors' refusal to work for the companies and the difficulty to find workers who would go door to door because of the job's stigma, companies had to violate almost all terms of the contract and authorities had to accept it or else the garbage wouldn't be collected. Another problem in areas where the companies collected the garbage, workers used to mix the separated waste before dumping it, whereas in areas where the garbage collectors operated, the system was more efficient as they facilitated the recycling process. Eskandar said that the new system proved more efficient at low and middle-class districts like El Zawya El Hamra than in higher class ones because housewives there manage their own kitchens and already practice waste separation. Unfortunately, Eskandar said, even though officials at the Ministry of Environmental Affairs appreciated their proposed system, they never implemented it. Negotiations are currently underway with officials to return the garbage collectors' licenses to collect garbage directly from apartments.
