2008
Jan 
6

Egypt and the Environment

8:50  
 

Reduce? Reuse? Recycle? Answer: Throw my Garbage on the Ground!

There is a garbage problem in Egypt. The problem is that there is garbage everywhere. People throw garbage out of their windows, in the street, from the tram, on the ground, in alleys, in abandoned buildings, the river, canals, drains, holes in the street/sidewalk, under cars, around corners… I need not list every single place, nook and cranny in Egypt. Though, rest assured, if there is a nook or a cranny in Egypt, it likely has garbage in it.

There are many reasons for this, I am sure. We can cite economic reasons, education, public awareness, etc. While those reasons all have their particular arguments, they are all bullshit. The truth of the matter is simply that no one cares. That and there are not public waste receptacles, or when there are they are full.

A recent demonstrative anecdote: I was sitting in the coffee house around the corner from my apartment and noticed that there was a guy who would come along every day or so and just dump the two garbage receptacles sitting across the street onto the sidewalk and the roll them away. I watched this happen numerous times. The receptacles we always back in place, or had been replaced, the next day.

One afternoon, whilst sipping my Earl Grey, I noticed that the guy came up to the garbage bins and couldn’t move them. They had been chained and padlocked to a nearby lamp-post. He looked pissed off, then he started talking to an old man leaning out of the window of a nearby first-floor apartment. They chatted for a while and the guy left.

About fifteen minutes later, he returned and handed an extension cord to the old man, who presumably plugged it in somewhere. To the other end of the cord, he attached a wheel-grinder which he employed in grinding through links in the chains.

Then, he removed the chain, dumped the garbage on the sidewalk, collected his cord and rolled the bins away.

Well done everyone.

I am sure that this guy had a job to do. He probably worked for the garbage collection system, which is improving. I am not questioning his motives, just his methods.

Convervationism and environmentalism is relatively non-existent here, as well. Here is a recent Onion article on the topic. This, unfortunately is about the only way that you could get people to notice that there is an environmental problem. It would be like telling Americans that they can have no more cheeseburgers because we have destroyed and squandered the resources that make them possible. Oh, wait… Nevermind.

Joking aside, this problem is endemic here. Conservation and environmental sciences are relegated to the academic world, such as it is, and see very little real action. Some government initiatives, minor interest here and there, but as for real results: nothing. Air pollution is at an all-time high, water pollution is terrifying, and garbage—as said—is everywhere.

This is not to say that there is not hope. Recently, I attended a presentation/workshop on climate change at an Alexandria high school. My friend Mohamed Zakzouk—graduate student in engineering and environmental policy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario—conducted the workshop portion of the event. The purpose of this event was to raise awareness about environmental concerns and to encourage dialogue between parents and students. The results were interesting. Few parents participated, but the students were really into it. With any luck, this sort of thing will be a precursor to later interest in environmental concerns and will encourage students to take an everyday approach to them.

In the mean time, I am not sure what can be done. As with many problems here, the approach to environmental problems—and even just cleaning up the garbage which proliferates the streets—seems to be one of, “Well, what can I do? I’m just one person.” Perhaps laws about littering would work. Then there would be the problem of arbitrary enforcement, and the net result would be minimal.

I will have to be content that I have tried to lower my waste footprint here as much as possible, and maybe lead by example: attempting to re-use containers, purchasing vegetables at the market (and carrying them home in my bookbag), picking up garbage and depositing it in proper receptacles, when possible (which really gets some interesting looks: I did this one afternoon and watched a group of kids watching me all throw their soda cans on the ground and walk away). In addition, I take public transportation, I try not to take cabs and if I do, I try to share them with others. I use compact fluorescent lights in my apartment, and turn things off when I am not using them.

These are no different than my behaviors in the United States, though. In fact, in the U.S., my housemates and I would be called tree-huggers for the amount of composting, reusing, recycling, and garbage collection that we do. I am fine with that if it helps me and anyone else to not have to walk over a pile of garbage to get to their door.

This is one of those “one-at-a-time” problems. The answer lies not in legislation (though it helps to encourage behavior) or in pouring money on awareness programs. It lies, as Mohamed pointed out in his workshop, in asking ourselves: “What can I do?” and asking each other: “What can we do together?”