1. Concept for New Municipal Waste System for Cairo
January 2008
Current Situation Reasons Proposed Solution
The condition of the streets Waste is now collected from Go back to collecting from
of Cairo has been containers and not just from homes door to door. Avoid
progressively becoming homes. People have bad habits bringing waste into the public
deplorable and unsanitary related to disposing waste domain
outside containers
Containers have been stolen, Go back to collecting from
destroyed or overturned spilling homes
over onto streets.
Containers are preferred by Engage unemployed youths to
international companies because collect door to door using low
they reduce collection costs for cost technologies.
them
Scavengers living on the edge of Remove containers from the
survival have multiplied as they public domain. Organize
now see an opportunity to scavengers in the new door to
recover recyclables from bins. door collection and recycling
They litter while scavenging. trade and upgrade them. They
are unemployed youths!
Multinationals are unable to Remove waste from the public
replace stolen bins at the domain.
required rate. They are fined
for the dirty condition of
streets. They abruptly end
their contracts.
Recycling Rates have Compaction trucks have • Reduce dependence on
declined destroyed the value of the waste compaction trucks.
and made it harder for revenues • Adapt collection
to be obtained from the valuable vehicles to magnify
resource – be in non organic or recycling.
organic. This affects the entire • Organize and formalize
nationwide recycling chain more recyclers outside
adversely. So many poor people of Cairo; in govts.
are further impoverished
Sorting waste mechanically at Keep waste sorted into two
composting plants recovers components only and have
minimal amounts compared to youths continue to sort
traditional manual methods manually but more efficiently
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2. which are the crux of informal to prepare inputs for industry
sector efficiency of recycling.
The availability of waste in Poverty contexts of Cairo’s urban Engage the urban poor in
the public domain has led to poor – estimated at 30% of organized, decent collection
the emergence of a new population. and recycling
class of informal sector
operators, who scavenge the
bins
Private sector companies The stigma attached to the trade. Dignify the trade by source
have faced difficulties segregating household waste
attracting new entrants into and making it the source of
this trade decent livelihoods
The traditional household This is their trade and their Give the traditional collectors
waste collectors remain the profession. An estimated 40,000- official access to the waste,
main source of labor for this 60,000 people are organized and pay them a fair fee for service,
trade. have been regular in this trade for formalize, dignify and upgrade
50 years. Many others them.
nationwide trade within. They
provide income to their families,
education for their children, etc.
They work at lower wages than
before because they compensate
their low income from the
income from recycling
Residents are disgruntled by Multinationals have to be certain Ensure that everybody gets
the fact that they are paying they will get paid. Cannot leave paid regularly the same way
twice for a reduced level of them to the whims of residents multinationals are for the
service: once on their service: zabbaliin, youths
electric bill and a second newly integrated into the
time to the traditional system
garbage collector, albeit
informally and voluntarily.
Evidence that 30% of Multinationals service high Mobilize youths in low income
municipal waste in Cairo is income neighborhoods through neighborhoods to enter this
still not collected, and that the zabbaliin, in violation of their trade after dignifying it by
the neighborhoods which contracts. The zabbaliin are source segregating,
suffer from this neglect are regular in collection because they formalizing, monitoring and
the low income ones. depend on the recyclables for upgrading it.
survival. Zabbaliin are not
interested in low income Offer cross subsidies to
recyclables. collectors in low income
neighborhoods, be they
unemployed youths entering
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3. into new trade of traditional
zabbaliin.
Zabbaliin still manage This is the only way to recover Source segregate waste into
waste in unhygienic efficiently and earn enough two components: food and non
manner: they sort mixed money in view of the limited or food. Have zabbaliin divert
waste manually and still non existent revenues from fees food to composting plants.
live in unsanitary and/or from wages from Compensate zabbaliin for
neighborhoods contractors doing away with animals by
paying them from carbon
credit composting plants will
obtain from CERs and the
CDM mechanism
Multinationals operating They possess know how around Limit multinational
system in competition with management of final disposal interventions to management
the poor population of the sites (landfills) which natives do of sanitary landfills for
city not possess. residual waste (should not
exceed 10% as per experience
of zabbaliin)
Waste collection from The system still operates between Don’t touch the system. Let
commercial waste the waste generators and the the market direct it.
generators has not declined zabbaliin. Multinationals have
not been able to penetrate
Final consumer products Traditional recycling sector Introduce incentives and
made from recycled unaware or such hazards and/or business links between
materials dangerous to acting out of limited experience traditional recyclers and large
human health and survival motives industries to absorb processed
waste and produce items safe
for consumers
PROPOSAL FOR NEW SYSTEM FOR GREATER CAIRO:
• Go back to door to door collection
• Ask residents to throw their household waste into two cans: one for food one for
non food.
• Mount public awareness campaigns using the media, NGO’s, schools, sports
events,
• Do not distribute plastic bags. They are bad for the environment and residents
have enough bags from shopping for groceries.
• Obtain appropriate financial sources for fee for service from sources of municipal
finance: e.g. governorates, municipalities, commercial registry, ministry of
Finance, Tourism sector, etc.
• Organize youths into small collection teams/companies/cooperatives/Ngo’s in un-
served, low income neighborhoods
• Keep zabbaliin serving their age old neighborhoods
• Bring in unemployed youths into the 'clean' collection and recycling trade: Teach
them about sorting, recovering, processing, trading
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4. • Allocate small depots for youths entering the trade in low income neighborhoods
so that their new SME’s are close to the point of collection and they avoid
transport costs.
• Extend credit, electricity and protection from harassment for ALL small and
medium collectors and recyclers
• License everybody according to the neighborhood they serve
• Zabbaliin transport dry non organic waste only in their homes and continue to
recover, process, and trade
• Municipal trucks or multinationals collect organic portion in neighborhoods that
are not serviced by zabbaliin. They will make more money on the clean compost
now produced from source segregated waste
• Direct zabbaliin to transport organic fraction of waste to composting plants
• Ensure that zabbaliin are paid by composting plants for clean organic waste.
• Composting plants apply for Carbon Credits through the Clean Development
Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. This will provide them with funds to pay
zabbaliin
• Zabbaliin to stop raising pigs or any other animals in their neighborhoods because
now they can make that income from the CDM at composting plant gates.
• EEAA gets portion of Carbon Credits through CMD. This allows it to pay for
public awareness to promote the new system
• EEAA or governorate allocates portion of revenues from CER’s through the
CDM mechanism to upgraded working conditions of collectors, be they new
entrants into trade from among unemployed youths or traditional zabbaliin, i.e.
gloves, uniforms, clean trucks, small transfer stations, etc.
What would the system look like?
Household Waste
Source segregated
Organic (Wet) Non Organic (Dry)
50-60 % of waste 30-40% of waste
Transported directly to Sorted, processed and traded by
composting plants SME's (unemployed youths)
7 jobs per ton
Only 10% residual goes to
landfill
Why do we think it would work? Because it has been tested in five different
locations in Egypt and because it has been proposed to hundreds of community
groups and accepted:
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5. 1. Manial and Deir el Malak – 1993-1994 by the Association for the Protection of
the Environment (Ford Foundation)
2. Maadi: in 1996 by the Association for the Protection of the Environment (Unesco)
3. Nuweiba, South Sinai, by Hemaya Association and C.I.D. (Social Fund for
Development and the EU)
4. El Zawya el Hamra in 2005 by the International Center for Environment, C.I.D.
AMA el Arab and the Spirit of Youth Association for Environmental Services
(Italian Debt Swap Program)
5. The American Chamber of Commerce: 1995 among offices generating waste
paper
These experiments all showed that residents complied with the system from 65% in
1994 to 90% in 2005. The Nuweiba model is a demonstration model which has been
sustainable for TEN years.
• 268 NGO in various neighborhoods are willing to adopt the practice.
• 145 private and government schools have heard about source segregation and are
ready to adopt it
An average 90% accepted the idea and were willing to implement it.
An Unprecedented Potential Livelihood Generation Source for Unemployed Youths
The capacity of the SME sector to develop itself has been manifested in the doubling of
investments in that sector compared to other sectors in Egypt. The rate of employment
generation within that sector amounted to 40% over 4 years (1996-2000).1 The system
1Community and Institutional Development; “The Informal Solid Waste Sector in Egypt: Prospects for
Formalization”. A study conducted by C.I.D. for the Ford Foundation and funded by the Institute of
International Education (IIE). October 2000.
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6. we propose would dignify the trade so that any young person with a technical diploma
would consider entering into the recycling business.
Non Organic Household waste SME’s for youths and zabbaliin in
collected by new SME’s for the and recovery, trading and
unemployed youths and zabbaliin processing business upgraded,
formalized, monitored
Large industry receives processed
non organic waste and produces
items safe for consumer health
Organic Waste Composting
delivered by Plants
zabbaliin to
Composting Plants
pay zabbaliin from
Carbon Credits
from CDM
Mechanism
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