Cairo’s proficient recyclers

Cairo has one of the most efficient garbage recycling systems in the world, and that’s due to the community of garbage collectors known as the Zebbaleen.

They collect the trash every night and sort it by hand, recycling up to 80 per cent of the gathered waste.

They also use pigs to eat up the organic leftovers, although that has decreased in the last year, after the government culled many of them amid swine flu outbreak fears.

Still, companies hired to pick up the trash recycle only a fraction of what the Zebbaleen manage.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker has the story of a people doing an important job, with very little recognition.