Waste & Recycling
Egypt's grassroots initiative paying Nile fishermen fair wages to fish plastic instead of dwindling catch.
200tonnesWaste collected from the Nile (2021-2023)
30fishermenFishermen in the plastic-collection program
Egypt
Africa · Northern Africa
4 projects · 4 organizations
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Zabaleen Syndicate
Waste & RecyclingCairo's Zabaleen Won a Seat at the Table Over Bottle-Eating Machines
When reverse vending machines that pay phone credit for bottles appeared in Giza in August 2026, Cairo's garbage collectors took the fight to live television and got the right to empty the machines themselves.
50%Share of Cairo's waste collected by the zabaleen (academic estimate cited by Reuters)
80%Share of collected waste the zabaleen recycle (academic estimate cited by Reuters)