Think Globally Act Locally | The Power Of R

 
 
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Zac Whyte in Garbage City, Cairo
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This fall I visited a lively bunch of grade seven students at Airport Elementary and told the tale of Mokattam Village, better known as Garbage City, Cairo. The students were learning about ancient Egypt and their understanding made the modern day story of the Zabbaleen people that much more invigorating. The, approximately 60,000, people living in Mokattam divert an extraordinary 80% of the waste stream from Cairo's inner core and turn it into profit through recycling and livestock husbandry. Development in Cairo and the recent Arab Spring are threatening this remarkable utilization of waste for profit but that was not the focus of this presentation. The people of Mokattam have shown the world what is possible when it comes to recycling and a zero waste mentality. They are a living, functioning example of exactly what the world needs to be doing to deal with it's waste as a resource instead of potentially toxic landfill material.

To tie the story together, the second half of the presentation demonstrated to each student how they could each reduce their ecological footprint and make a powerful difference in their local community by reducing and reusing their waste.  The Power Of R was in the house.

_ "This fall I had the pleasure of having Zac Whyte come into my grade 6/7 classroom. We wanted to combine his work around solid waste reduction, with our class’ current study of Egypt. Zac was able to put together an engaging, relevant and unique presentation combining these two topics. He has an outstanding classroom presence, and his extensive knowledge and personal passion was able to inspire all of my students; he is terrific!" - Vanessa Hitchcock - Elementary Teacher
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Zac Whyte in Garbage City, Cairo Egypt
When I returned home from Cairo last year I began to see my world differently.  After witnessing the diligent activity of thousands of people harvesting, sorting and recycling garbage in Mokattam Village, or “Garbage City” as it is known around the world, it was hard not to be inspired every time I looked at a recycling box. Cairo is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with an estimated 15 to 20 million people. It produces a significant amount of waste that is collected each day by residents of Garbage City in donkey carts and run down trucks. The people of Mokattam have been doing this line of work for over 100 years. They recycle 80% of the waste stream by sorting the garbage into compost, saleable plastics, metals and fiber products like paper and wood. This incredible operation doesn’t cost Cairo a single cent and it’s arguably the most successful recycling program in the world. Now it’s all about to end because Cairo wants to be seen as a modern city.

Cairo is buying contracts with multinational companies to dispose of the waste in trucks that forces the master recyclers of Mokattam to find a new line of work. This backward story follows three boys through a complex, disheartening, and inspiring documentary of hope for the world’s future. It leaves you facing tough questions like: why would any city want to pay for garbage trucks when it has an entire suburb economy living on what Mokattam calls “a precious resource” and “a way of life?” There is a lesson in this documentary that the world needs to see to believe and there are messages we all need to enact before collectively burying our future with our waste.

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Thanks to the initiative of World Community Development Education Society, the BC Council for International Cooperation, and The Power Of R, we were able to present an exclusive screening of Garbage Dreams to hundreds of Comox Valley students at Sid Williams Theatre in February 2010. I had the honour of speaking at the event, introducing the film and leading a Q&A discussion after the screening.

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Some of our fantastic volunteers
Garbage Dreams is a remarkable film that captures the essence of life in Mokattam Village and dives headlong into the politics of solid waste in Cairo and Europe. This special screening, that opened the annual World Community Film Festival, was an eye opening success. It sparked conversations for weeks after the event in schools and it gave every attending student a new appreciation for the value of what we throw away on a daily basis. Garbage is not garbage at all; it’s a renewable resource that is incredibly lucrative if it is handled properly.

Garbage Dreams continues to win dozens of independent film awards and it can be seen on PBS April 27th or by purchasing a membership to the extensive World Community Video Library at the Freakin Coffee Shop in TinTown.  To find out more about the film visit http://www.garbagedreams.com/
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