Celebrating garbage the Egyptian way
The Garbage Festival teaches Egyptians the value of eco-friendly living and serving society through recycling.
To gain entrance to the festival, organizers require that a person bring five empty cans, five plastic bottles, 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of old paper and five glass jars. Called the Garbage Festival, the event aims to raise awareness among citizens, especially youths, about the hidden value of garbage and how one can earn money from it.
"The name of the festival is certainly both provocative and odd," Emad Anwar, the festival organizer, told Al-Monitor. "We selected this name in order to attract people's attention to our message."
Anwar, the head of Adam Foundation for Human Development, a nongovernmental organization established in 2012, said he and fellow organizers want people to know that they can turn solid waste into products and earn money from them.
An estimated 75 million tons of trash end up on Egypt's streets every year, according to local media. The trash includes industrial waste, some of which eventually makes it into the Nile. To get rid of this waste, the country needs 2 billion Egyptian pounds ($111 million) every year. The Egyptian capital alone produces 19,000 tons of waste daily that is thrown onto the streets.
