One man's trash is another man's treasure at least in the eyes of the private companies hoping to make a profit from collecting Cairo's ever-growing mounds of garbage
The volume of garbage produced by Cairo's 18 million people is far more than the zabaleen (garbage collectors) of Manshiet Nasser can process using their donkey carts and manual sifting methods, a fact that prompted the government to contract foreign and local companies to take over the garbage collection process across greater Cairo's districts over the last four to five years.
It hasn't been the easiest job in the world to cut into the lucrative business of collecting garbage, which has been the livelihood of thousands of zabaleen for decades. It also hasn't been easy to convince people of the necessity of paying a fee of no more than LE 10 per month to have their garbage removed by the professionals rather than by the plain-clothed garbage collector.
The struggle between the corporate and the individual garbage collectors has led to the termination of contracts in certain areas and the subsequent accumulation of garbage on the side of the road. Meanwhile, some contracted companies managed to stay on top by forming alliances with their competition even as others threw in the towel and asked to be released from their contracts or launched arbitration suits against the Cairo and Giza governorates.
"The only way to solve Cairo's garbage problem is to put the zabaleen under the control of the companies, which is something the other companies don't want because they see it as a headache," says Anotonio Canale, managing director of AMA Arab Environment Company (AMA Arab).
AMA Arab is a joint venture run by AMA International, Rome's municipal sanitation company, which holds an 85% stake in the Egyptian venture. The Arab Contractors hold a 5% stake and FINBI owns 5%; an Italian financial institution holds the balance.
In August 2001, AMA International submitted a proposal for garbage collection, and was awarded a contract for Cairo's northern districts. After a year of negotiations, trying to iron out the details of termination clauses and penalties, the contract was finally signed in August 2002, with AMA Arab commencing its services on December 1, 2003.
"We were lucky [that negotiations only went on for a year, because] we were addressing certain things and nobody was listening to us, until Governor Shehata solved all the problems we were having in one day," says Canale. "Even [then], we were not able to solve all the problems. Recently, a consultant has been nominated to study a new contract that will be applied for all the solid waste management companies in Egypt, [addressing] all the problems of the current contracts."
"The zabaleen should hand the waste over to us because it's our waste. We own it."
The company's first contract for North Cairo included seven districts, from Shubra to El-Zeitoun, with a population of 3 million people packed in a maze of small streets that resemble an impermeable marketplace until 2am. "You have to tailor the system to the population, otherwise you won't be successful," Canale says as he explains the time taken to formulate a work plan. The final plan was based on an in-depth study of the roads, population density, number of homes and behavior patterns for Cairo's northern area alone.
The foreign companies' strategies towards the garbage collection process have varied, the most notorious of which have been the large garbage bins that have become a common sight on street corners across the city. They didn't last very long, particularly once the inhabitants of the areas found better uses for the bins than their initial purpose.
Canale explains that in light of these challenges, AMA Arab came up with an alternative strategy.
"We designed a new system that was introduced for the first time in Egypt stationary compacting equipment which was actually manufactured in Egypt." Instead of importing compactors like those on the back of a garbage truck, AMA Arab contracted MCV - Egypt-based Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles, primarily an auto-manufacturer to produce the compactors locally using AMA International technology and know-how at a much lower cost than the imported units. "We have 50 [compacting] stations all over [Cairo's north]. [The compactor] is guarded by three people alternating on eight hour shifts," he adds.
After the bustling streets of the north Cairo area settle down in the early hours of the morning, AMA Arab trucks arrive, remove the full compactors and take them to be emptied at the company's composting plant and landfill site in Kattameya.
Collecting the garbage from individual homes was another task which AMA Arab struggled with at first.
"Switzerland is clean not because of the good service. Switzerland is clean because of the behavior of the people."
"We were the only company that wanted the zabaleen to sign a contract with us," Canale says. "We offered a salary for each person who would sign a very simple contract with us, which said that they had to collect garbage for eight hours a day, not for three hours like they do now, that they had to work under our system, wear our uniform, that they should not collect garbage on the stairwells like they did and that they should hand the waste over to us because it's our waste. We own it."
Paying a salary of LE 530 per garbage collector, Canale knew that the company would be taken for granted, but put a system in place that would protect the company's finances and let the contracted zabaleen know that AMA Arab meant business.
"It took eight months to negotiate this contract, with 1,000 subcontracts for all of north Cairo. It was a very difficult battle because they wanted to steal the garbage, [] take the money and not do the job," he says. "The first month we paid everybody, the second month we started applying the rules of the contract and paying only 90% or 70% of what was agreed. The next time we terminated our contract with them."
AMA Arab is in negotiations with the zabaleen who make up 60% of the company's staff today -- but is still battling with the Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Authority (CCBA), which is penalizing the company for uncollected garbage in north Cairo. "The CCBA, which is controlling us, doesn't understand that all this [is going on], and are just applying penalties if they find garbage. It's difficult to explain [to the CCBA] that this is a war," Canale says.
While he's willing to battle with the age-old profession that has created a landmark in the heart of Cairo with its mountains of garbage, other companies refuse to voluntarily accept the headache.
"The Spanish company [Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, which operates as Egypt Environmental Services] refused to accept this, and that's why they left. At a certain point, they couldn't manage all their bins were disappearing because their system was to set up [plastic] bins in their area," Canale says, adding that the company lost 5,000 bins before throwing in the towel.
In South Giza, for example, where there are four million inhabitants, the daily garbage output is about 2,000 tons. "Zabaleen can't handle 2,000 tons of garbage a day using their donkey carts! We won't promise to sweep the streets, because as long as the zabaleen are not under our control, we'll be penalized if there's any garbage found on the street," he says. "We are interested to have the zabaleen working for us, because otherwise, [the governorate] will apply a penalty."
Having proven its success in north Cairo, AMA Arab was awarded a new contract for west Cairo last year, bringing under its mandate Manshiet Nasser, the home of the zabaleen themselves.
Garbage Disposal
Once the intricate network of zabaleen, almost 400 small pickup trucks and 50 compactors have done their job of collecting the garbage, the waste is trucked out to AMA's compost plant in Qattameya. The plant was bought from the CCBA when AMA was awarded the contract and has a capacity of 640 tons per day. Potential upgrades to the plant could raise its capacity to 1,000-1,500 tons per day.
Investment in a new facility would be between LE 50-70 million, an attractive price compared to the potential cost of a similar facility in Europe. "In Italy it will cost you much, much more of course, because there are all kinds of electronics and coverings etc. Here, the composting is done in the open air, because the weather is dry. In Germany, they need to control the environment and that will cost you so much more," Canale says.
After a lengthy sorting process at the plant, about 20-30% of the collected garbage goes to the landfill for disposal. "Garbage composition is different in every place, [but] let's say an average 50-55% is organic [waste, which is] transformed into compost [and sold]," Canale explains, adding that other recyclables such as glass, paper, plastic, tissue, metal and wood are extracted from the garbage and separated. "The remaining part is reject [which is about] 20-30%, [and] goes to the landfill."
In the location of a natural hole, AMA Arab's landfill will take less than four years to fill from the time the company took on west Cairo garbage collection duty. After, Canale says it can be turned into a park, just like Azhar Park. "Otherwise you'd be left with a big hole in the ground that you need to fill," he explains. "Our landfill is controlled, it's covered every day, we have equipment and compacters there -- it's properly run," he says, adding that international specialists have inspected it. "We already have a new site ready for a new landfill because [residential buildings are coming closer]."
A Matter of Behavior
"Switzerland is clean not because of the good service. Switzerland is clean because of the behavior of the people. As a matter of fact, we do a better service here than in Switzerland, because here we [collect] three times a day," Canale muses.
With a $1.5 million contribution from Cooperazione Italiano, AMA Arab has launched awareness campaigns to teach the younger generation about the importance of properly handling garbage. "People don't care [about public sanitation] because at the moment, they care only about the space inside their apartment. When they go out the door, it's not their land. They should change this mentality and think that outside the door is also their land."
The behavior is not the same all across Cairo. "In west Cairo there is much less stealing; we put out the bins and they haven't disappeared. There are some that have gone missing, but not much. So the behavior of the population in west Cairo is different already. It all takes time," Canale proudly states.
Battling with the inherent fear that Egyptians have of foreign companies coming to make a profit from the people, Canale reiterates his philosophy one more time. "Only big companies can do this job, because it needs big investments -- we invested $100 million in north Cairo," he says. "[Such an investment] cannot be all paid in one year, that's why the contract is for 15 years [] Small companies [with] one year contracts [can't] do the job. They are obliged to just use very old equipment [] because they cannot invest the needed amount in one year."
With a new contract for west Cairo, AMA Arab is investing another $100 million, and Canale points out that the sweeping machine alone costs 1 million. The company will have 5,000 employees by the end of 2007 a scale that smaller companies or shorter-term contracts couldn't handle.
Could recycling take off in Egypt on the scale that it has reached in Europe? That, according to Canale, is a totally different industry that would need its own series of investments that AMA is not going to get into. But culture and space remain the two most important hurdles in the movement toward recycling. "We [launched] a small pilot project which demonstrated that it's very difficult [to start recycling at the source]. It's almost impossible, because these people live in areas of high population density, as is the case in north Cairo, and there's no space to set up bins for recycling."
By Fatima El-Saadani
© Business Today Egypt 2007
