As Egypt prepares to host the UN's Cop27 climate change conference in November, residents in one of the world’s largest unofficial recycling operations continue their daily work without paying much attention.
Inhabitants of the 5.5 square kilometre informal settlement known as Cairo's “Garbage City” told The National that they had no knowledge that Cop27 was even taking place in Egypt, and that their work is unaffected by the goings-on in the outside world.
“We do our work to feed ourselves and our families. We don’t know much about the climate and all that. We do our work under any climate,” said Mena Samy, 31, who owns a plastic recycling warehouse in the area.
“Whether it’s raining, hot or windy, we do our work.”
Located at the base of Cairo’s Moqattam Hills and sprawled across their slopes, Garbage City — Hay El Zabaleen in Arabic — is part of Mansheyet Naser, an unofficial settlement near Cairo’s Nasr City district.
El Zabaleen recycles over 85 per cent of all the rubbish produced by Cairo’s 22 million residents.
Home to more than 70,000 people — predominantly Coptic Christians — it is one of the Egyptian capital’s poorest districts.
Its living conditions can be jarring to outsiders, shocked by the stench of the rubbish that covers the packed settlement.
Though its streets are covered with heaps of rubbish, residents of Hay El Zabaleen have attempted to decorate it with images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary suspended between buildings on opposite sides of the street.
Other prominent Coptic figures are also honoured with murals on many of the walls and balconies in the area.
Mr Samy says that despite enjoying widespread media coverage as a romanticised emblem of environmental practices in Egypt, to its residents, Hay El Zabaleen is nothing more than a makeshift economy created out of the discarded bits of other people’s lives.
Each day, dozens of lorries laden with rubbish bags collected from every corner of Cairo line up to enter El Zabaleen’s narrow streets to unload their cargo.
This is then sorted by recyclers in the area’s rundown homes and warehouses.
The area is also home to some of the few pig farms in Cairo, which are an essential part of its operations as they eat the organic waste found during rubbish sorting.
Though the eating and raising of pigs are prohibited under Islam, this is not the case in Christianity. Before the area became known for sorting rubbish, it was one of the largest pig farming operations in Egypt.
Each operation specialises in a different aspect of the recycling process whereby one household will only collect and sort plastic, while another will only collect tin, or aluminium, or cardboard. The size and output of each operation varies according to how much capital and labour it has.
The area’s wealthier recyclers typically buy machines such as pressers or pelletisers, which enable them to process the rubbish and sell it at a higher price to the many factories which buy the recycled plastic from them.
“If I just sort the plastic I find and sell it as it is. I can make five [Egyptian] pounds ($0.25) on every kilo of garbage, but if I press it or turn it into pellets, I can sell it for six or seven pounds,” said Gerges Ibrahim, 41, who owns one of the few pelletisers in the area.
The area’s young people also exploit its unofficial economy by collecting rubbish and selling it to recyclers.
“I go up to the rich homes on the other side of the Al Moqattam hills every morning and collect whatever I can salvage from the garbage cans there,” said Emil Kirollos, 17, a resident of Garbage City.
“I do it for a couple of hours and return with two or three bags of garbage.
“Depending on what I find, I could make 100 or 200 pounds every day.”
Mr Ibrahim, whose family has been sorting rubbish in Mansheyet Naser since the 1930s, was one of the few residents who had heard about Cop27.
He told The National that he was told about the conference by a security guard at a plastics company he was delivering a shipment to. He then saw a news segment about the conference on television.
“These kinds of events only really matter to the big, wealthy companies who have a public image to maintain. We don’t really worry about our public image here, the whole area is covered in garbage, for God’s sake,” Mr Ibrahim said.
Alya El Marakby, an independent environmental researcher, told The National that recycling and other green initiatives are fashionable in Egypt right now because of the conference.
But Garbage City displays a side of the country that is often hidden because it is at odds with how Egypt wants to present itself abroad, she said.
“Green initiatives like Very Nile for instance have a strong branding aspect to their operation because they were launched by business-savvy people who are aware of the international trends and their focus on green projects,” said Ms El Marakby.
“But when you’re talking about an area as poor and underdeveloped as Hay El Zabaleen, you have to understand that their participation in recycling is out of economic necessity rather than being a part of the global climate change industry and mainstream activism.
“I think the fact that they are so poor makes them somewhat irrelevant when it comes to the business side of Cop27.”
Many of the area’s residents belong to families who in the early 1900s and onwards migrated to Cairo from Upper Egypt, a rural region of the country which has a distinct, conservative, culture.
They are wary of outsiders and many residents limit their interactions with anyone from outside their neighbourhood.
Mr Samy sugforgests this might be another factor why the conference is virtually unknown in the area.
Perhaps the insular nature of the area may also have something to do with misconceptions about Hay El Zabaleen and its people among other Cairo residents.
Ziad Hamada, 45, a resident of the nearby Al Dowayqa area of Mansheyet Naser, said that in his neighbourhood, people from Garbage City are looked down upon because of their association with waste.
As Egypt's wealthier recycling operations prepare to participate in Cop27, many have launched promotional campaigns centred around the conference and its importance.
Despite its poverty and marginalisation, El Zabaleen has been lauded for its efficiency. The area recycles more than 90 per cent of the rubbish it collects — far exceeding the percentage achieved by most recycling companies.
The area also witnesses a fair amount of tourism because it surrounds the Monastery of Saint Simon — more commonly known as the Cave Church — located at the top of Al Moqattam and carved into its limestone face.
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
AIR
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MATCH INFO
Champions League last 16, first leg
Tottenham v RB Leipzig, Wednesday, midnight (UAE)
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
Avatar%3A%20The%20Way%20of%20Water
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJames%20Cameron%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESam%20Worthington%2C%20Zoe%20Saldana%2C%20Sigourney%20Weaver%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Bahrain%20GP
%3Cp%3EFriday%20qualifying%3A%207pm%20(8pm%20UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ESaturday%20race%3A%207pm%20(UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETV%3A%20BeIN%20Sports%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
ABU%20DHABI'S%20KEY%20TOURISM%20GOALS%3A%20BY%20THE%20NUMBERS
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Astra%20Tech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMarch%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbdallah%20Abu%20Sheikh%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20technology%20investment%20and%20development%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20size%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24500m%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
RESULTS
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m
Winner: Dirilis Ertugrul, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Ismail Mohammed (trainer)
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
Winner: Kidd Malibu, Sandro Paiva, Musabah Al Muhairi
2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
Winner: Raakezz, Tadhg O’Shea, Nicholas Bachalard
3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
Winner: Au Couer, Sean Kirrane, Satish Seemar
3.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
Winner: Rayig, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
Winner: Chiefdom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
Winner: King’s Shadow, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
AL%20BOOM
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Brief scores:
Everton 2
Walcott 21', Sigurdsson 51'
Tottenham 6
Son 27', 61', Alli 35', Kane 42', 74', Eriksen 48'
Man of the Match: Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur)
The%20Witcher%20-%20season%20three
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHenry%20Cavill%2C%20Freya%20Allan%2C%20Anya%20Chalotra%3Cstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
