The Sad Story of Garbage City

Cairo is the 13th city in the world, however it lacks infrastructure when it comes to garbage collection and recycling. The city of Cairo outsources this dirty job to the town of Manshiyat Naser. This town's economy completely relies on garbage collection, however it also lacks infrastructure needed to safely dispose of all the waste. As a result, trash piles up in the streets. The town has been nicknamed "Garbage City"

The people living in this town, mostly Coptic Christians have been dubbed the "Zabbaleen" which literally translates into "garbage people." They have been collecting Cairo's trash for over 70 years. These people would offer a door-to-door service for a small fee, carting away trash on donkey carts.

Most notably, 90% of all garbage is recycled. This is over 4 times the percentage of recycling done in the western world. 

In 2009, the Cairo government ordered the slaughter of approximately 350 thousand pigs in Manshiyat Naser to prevent swine flu outbreaks. Pigs were very important to the Zabbaleen as they were used to recycle food scraps.

Unsurprisingly, the living conditions in this town are quite poor. In addition to garbage being everywhere, the town lacks running water and electricity.