CAIRO – In our country, there are mountains of garbage in the streets. We don't know how to use it. Foreign countries see their trash as a goldmine and they recycle it in different forms. Recycling rubbish is an excellent investment and it also creates new jobs for young people. Israel Ayyad is Egypt's most famous rubbish collector, known as the ‘Prince of the Garbage Collectors'. He has been collecting trash since the age of 18 and is proud of what he has achieved. This illiterate self-made man is now very wealthy. “Many Egyptians don't respect us but we don't care. Our work is very important, as we keep the environment clean and healthy,” Ayyad told The Egyptian Gazette. “The average family throws away 5kg of rubbish per month. We find edible things for the poor and their animals in people's trash. “When businessmen have big wedding parties at five-star hotels, huge amounts of food get thrown out; we take it and sell it to the needy. We sell the food that no one will eat to farmers to feed to their chickens. “Under Mubarak, we really suffered when all the pigs were slaughtered. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. Our association gave them some money, but it wasn't sufficient. I think the swine flu was a trick.” Like many Egyptians, Ayyad is a very humble man. “I live in a very simple home and I don't have a car because I'm afraid of cars.” “I collect the trash from 30 blocks of flats in Giza, as well as hotels in Mohandiseen and downtown Cairo,” says Nasser Sedqi, a garbage collection contractor. “The garbage collectors live in Ard el-Liwa in Giza, and Ezbet el-Nakhl and Manshiyet Nasser in Cairo. I collect and sort the garbage in my house. My family help me. “It's best to sort it manually way, so we don't miss anything useful. It's better than the method used by the garbage companies,” adds Sedqi, who's picked up many dangerous viruses in the course of his work. In the past, the garbage collectors made a lot of money selling plastic, glass, metal, paper and other items. “Today, the foreign companies collect the waste from the wealthy areas, so we are now limited to the poor areas. “I recycle plastic waste to make black plastic bags in my workshop in Ard el-Liwa. Israel works near me,” says Melad Tawfeeq, who owns a recycling workshop. “We earn very little. Since the revolution, we've asked the new Government to cancel the contracts with the foreign companies, so we can start collecting trash in the wealthy areas again.” India and China import rubbish from Egypt. They recycle it and export to Egypt again in the form of products like slippers, toys, sports shoes and so on. Meanwhile, the Japanese make furniture, car bodies and refrigerators from rubbish. “The Government helps them. We only wish that our new Government would build us factories, so we don't have to keep on exporting our golden rubbish,” adds Tawfeeq. Tareq Hussein, an international environmental affairs expert, says that garbage varies from district to district; in wealthy districts, it contains more plastic and wood. “In other countries, there are two boxes for garbage outside people's homes, one for plastic and other materials for recycling, and another for regular garbage,” he explains. “Garbage may include 12 products, such as plastic, wood, paper and clothing. “If our old culture changed, we would save much time and effort by sorting garbage systematically. The environment benefits from recycling waste, because otherwise people burn it to dispose of it.”
