Sustainable Recycling Systems: A Global Responsibility

Abstract: In the world today, thousands of humans in developing countries live in metropolises anddepend on garbage for their livelihoods. In Cairo, waste has been taken care of by aChristian minority group called the ‘Zabaleen’.This Bachelor thesis was conducted in Cairo and financed by a Minor Field Studyscholarship in August-October 2012. It focuses on Egyptian citizens’ attitudes towards asustainable recycling system and their attitudes towards the traditional garbage collector‘Zabaleen’. I used focus groups as the main source for collecting data and the technique ofshowing photographs to create a dialog among the participants. The focus groups have led to dynamic and useful discussions that this study is based upon. In conclusion, onecommon attitude that was met in the study indicates the frustration of how dirty the streetsof Cairo are. People all said they wanted a clean Egypt but they felt that no one from thegovernment wanted to put their finger on the solution to this problem.