The film garbage dreams is set in Cairo, Egypt. It focusses on the lives of the Zabbaleen who are a Christian community who for a living collect rubbish from outside houses and sort it and sell it on to be recycled.
The Zabbaleen are sustainable as the three key points to something being sustainable are Economic, Social and Environment. The Zabbaleen meet these points very well; Economic met by the fact the Zabbaleen provide the rubbish collection service for free. Social is for filled by, that without this opportunity to this Christian community they would be jobless. Environment is helped by the fact the Zabbaleen recycle 80% of all rubbish collected.
Although the Zabbaleen do a good job their jobs are constantly at risk. Foreign garbage collectors pose a serious threat to the lives of the Zabbaleen; these companies don’t recycle as much and require payment so the thoughts of the people in charge of this matter can be questionable. Another danger in the lives of the Zabbaleen is the fact of disease, diseases such as tetanus and unfortunately high infant mortality rates.
To help solve these problems the Zabbaleen have social workers which give them tetanus jabs (although they do complain it hurts too much) and families with young children are kept under a watchful eye. To cope with the problem of the foreign companies groups have been formed to protest against it but mostly there has been a ‘Garbage School’ introduced to promote careful are safe working habits which can compete with the large companies.
The overall message of the film is although you may have a great scheme you must get used to the times changing and must keep up with the globalisation of your trade and you have to make difficult choices to keep up.