InstitutionClaim Cited
Cairo's Zabaleen recycling system
Cairo's Zabaleen built a distributed collection and recycling economy from household routes, family labor, material expertise, animal feeding, workshops, and resale markets. Its recovery rate is widely reported as unusually high but has not been established by a cited citywide mass-flow audit; the better-supported history shows how privatization and the 2009 pig cull weakened livelihoods and material flows while hazardous and gendered work remained concentrated in households.
How can a city recognize and improve a recycling system built through informal household relationships without dispossessing the workers whose livelihoods depend on access to discarded material?