Zabaleen waste pickers are finally being re-integrated into the city's services, a decade after they were sidelined
For the waste pickers that have traditionally made a living sifting through the mountain of discarded litter that blights the streets of Cairo, there has been scant cause for celebration these past 10 years. Marginalised by a 2004 Mubarak goverment directive that placed household waste collection in the hands of multinationals, their existence has been one of ever increasing struggle for steadily declining return.
But change is afoot. Government acceptance that the corporatisation of waste disposal in Egypt's capital has been a resounding failure has paved the way for the formal integration of the zabaleen who, for more than half a century, went door to door gathering the vast majority of household waste in Cairo into the city's official refuse collection system.
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