Assignment #3

Reem Hassan &

Shahinda Ali
 Solid Wastes
Egypt needs sustainable way
to reduce wastes
Egypt produces 16.2 million
tons of wastes
970,000 tons are plastic waste.
5% is reused
Toxic gases cause diseases
related to immune and
respiratory system.
 How to reduce consumption?
Refuse: what you dont need

Reduce: what you do need

Reuse and recycle : what you have

Compote: the rest

- Waste in Egypt is not linked to a
specific district, area or a place

New Cairo, Narges 3

 Who are El Zabaleen ?
- Garbage and waste are mainly collected by people who moved
from countryside to the city and living in the Zabaleen district.

- The area is named after this category of people and means

people who gather the waste and rubbish from the streets.
 I suddenly found myself leaving school and deciding to be
involved in collecting waste. I get paid 2 pounds and Im satisfied

- Ahmed Sabry.
 FACTS
- Egypt loses almost 0.4 - 0.6 % of its gross domestic product due
to the fact that only about 80% % of the produced waste is
actually collected -Al Ahram Weekly

- Zabaleen collect about 8,000 tons of waste yearly while leaving

6,000 tons filling the streets without being collected. 8,000 is
about 80 % of the waste which leaves the street with almost
20% of the waste -Al Ahram Weekly
 Reflection

This project was more advanced than the ones we took before. The first part of the assignment (the research) was

challenging because pollution is a very broad topic and we have to narrow it down. We decided to search about wastes
and recycling in Egypt. We found out that solid wastes are one of the most harmful kinds of wastes for the
environment, specially that It needs hundreds of years to become decay and vanished. With that said, we decided to
focus on solid wastes. We wanted to take artistic photos instead of just taking photos for wastes in streets. For
example, we looked for the effect of solid wastes on marines life and animals. As you can see in the presentation,
many animals get trapped in these plastics. So, I took these pictures and tried to apply it in humans lives. This
assignment opened our eyes on how Egypt is passing through critical situation. The fact that despite how some places
are supposedly modern and recently built ones are filled with rubbish and garbage shows and manifests that we are
from the countries that are moving backward and worsening by the minute. What we liked the most is that we decided
to take the project from different prespective through collecting the bottles and plastic bags and started to work with
instead of just discussing the issue. Assignment 3 was overall very beneficial.