In Cairo's Manshiyet Nasr — long nicknamed "Garbage City" for the piles of trash lining its streets — a new generation is reshaping both the neighborhood's reputation and its role in Egypt's fight against plastic pollution. Mina Nedi, a 25-year-old nursing graduate who chose recycling over finding work in a hospital, is particularly determined to make an environmental impact.
Nedi works with his father to sort thousands of plastic bottles each day and compress them for resale. While his family has been in the waste collection business for years, Nedi sees the work as more than a paycheck. "Climate change, plastic pollution, microplastics. Awareness is growing among young people in Egypt," he told The Guardian. "Cairo has a waste problem, and I know I can make a difference here. To me, it's not garbage; it's income and an opportunity to keep my city clean."
Once stigmatized as "zabaleen," which translates to "the garbage people," the community plays an important role in processing up to 80% of Cairo's waste and as much as two-thirds for the greater metro area.
Egypt produces nearly 100 million tonnes of solid waste each year. While the government has launched the Waste Management Regulatory Authority, tackling the area's trash problem is easier said than done. But for residents such as Nedi and 29-year-old recycler Irini Edel, waste collection is a way to make change. "We're polluting our planet, and that's why I see my work as important. It's for the environment, and I'm proud of it," Edel said.
By turning plastic waste into a resource, the community helps prevent it from ending up in the Mediterranean Sea. The Middle East and North Africa already has the world's highest per-capita marine plastic footprint, according to the World Bank.
Nedi says he paid for university by recycling and now shares what he's learned with his peers, sparking conversations about reducing plastic use. His younger brother Michael, a computer science student, says friends respect the work more now than ever. Families are even investing in home renovations and local businesses, which shows they're confident in the community's future.
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Ocean Bottle co-founder Will Pearson noted Manshiyet Nasr is a great example of how taking local action is part of tackling global challenges. "Global plastic production emits greenhouse gases equivalent to the world's sixth-largest economy — it's in every way a growing and interconnected part of the problem," Pearson said.
For Nedi, changes are already starting to show. "Recycling is becoming the cool thing to do here in Egypt," he told The Guardian.
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