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In Egypt, there's city built entirely on garbage. Just short drive from the world's most popular tourist attraction lies place where 14 ,000 tons of trash are dumped every day. Here, residents have to move mountains of garbage just to survive. With no clean water, unreliable electricity, and the constant threat of disease, life in this city is daily battle. But sometimes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Because here, thousands of locals rely on collecting waste to support their families, and you won't believe the things they find. So, how much money do people make here? And could you survive day in this city? We're about to find out. Joining me on this adventure is Maged, local guide from the community. One of my goals with him is to get access into someone's home and see their living conditions, and he said that we can try this later on. Also with us is my Egyptian friend, Passant, who's never been to Garbage City before. You were born and raised in Cairo? Yeah, lived all my life here. Growing up in Cairo, was always like super, super overstimulated. Only in the last few years that started to appreciate its chaos-ness. As we're getting our heads taken off? Yeah, yeah. Hi, how are you? Look in front of us right now. Look at this traffic jam. Just trying to grab my head around what we're seeing. mean, we're just like, boom, we're here, and now I'm trying to figure it out. Our office is like just 15 minutes right from here. You never heard of this place until messaged you? didn't know it's here. just never like decided to come and walk here. It's not the most walkable. So all of the garbage here is collected from the city. People go out into Cairo, they grab it, they collect it, they bring it here. Separate it here. Do people have side business where if they find like things in the garbage and they want to sell them, like watches or something? Yeah, the things, yeah. How do you know? think you live here. Yes, right, right. The people here are very honest. If you find any things, like gold like this, garbage collection, please come, we found this yesterday. Yeah, give it to them. Wow. Really. Didn't know that they take recycling so seriously. Right. mean, we barely even have separated trash, like everywhere. But they're separating it manually, you know? You know, they brought the cardboard to the factory down in town called Al-Azhar. Ahlan. That's lot of boxes. This is not like storage. They take this to the factory to recycle it. Everyone's just working diligently in this back corner with like millions of boxes. More than 90,000 people live in Garbage City, which is officially called Manichat Nasser. The people who live here are called the Zabaleen, who are mostly poor Christians who relocated here from Giza in the 1940s. Soon after that, the Zabaleen became Cairo's informal garbage collectors. Today, about 90% of them live in self-built homes, often in slum-like conditions. They use donkey-pulled carts to collect trash across Cairo, bringing it back to sort at home. Children handle plastic, women manage cans, men focus on glass and metal, and they feed organic waste to pigs. The Zabaleen recycle up to 85% of what they collect, which is much higher than the 25% average in Western countries. But their way of life is under threat. Authorities in Cairo are in talks with big garbage companies to take over waste collection, putting their economy and lifestyle at risk. Now there are fears they might be relocated pushed further outside Cairo. While understand the need for formal waste management and disease control, worry about what this means for the local people. Everything is super organized here. Yeah, these some buildings, storage. Bring the garbage to the first level, then they gather everything in the levels. Does everybody here work in garbage collecting? Everybody? know this is called Garbage City. Majority garbage collectors. But about 20 years, some people, they bring machines to recycle plastic. was going to ask you, are there lot of like sickness here because of trash? You know, God give them, you know, power. Smell here is very strong, know. But look here, the people very happy. Their health, very strong. Egyptian immunity. Yes, very strong. will give you some tap water to drink to top your Egyptian immunity. Yeah, totally. It really does feel like everybody's working in garbage. Like no one's doing anything else but collecting. And every single crack is filled with garbage. This is how they transport things up to like the third and fourth floor. They just have it on this pulley system. And they swing the bags up on slack line. Everywhere you look in this community, there's someone doing something in all of their shops. This man just came out of nowhere. don't know what he's fixing. Look here, the pigs. Go at your own risk. There's pig pen right here, but it's disgusting over here. Like flies. I'm stepping on poop. Do you have pigs for food for you? Are you eating the pigs? Yes. They eat the trash, the pigs? They eat, you know, from hotels or something like that. They breed lot. Thank you. Hashish, I'm good. If you could only smell this right now. have high tolerance for stuff, but this is like... Ew, look what they're eating. my god. It smells like puke. Like that looks and smells like puke. Do you know why they didn't eat pork in Islam? Because this is the image that we, as kids, show us. And they're like, why would you want to eat this? See, it eats rubbish. man, the sound of them eating that and the visuals. As kid, you see this and then you're like, yep, not eating that, nope. We're just walking through tiny alley here with light glimmering through piles and piles of trash. You just see like one woman sitting here sorting through all this trash. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. And it's not like one. It's like every single different house, every single different block, is different woman or team of women sorting through trash. How you are, Gala? How are you? Hallelujah. When they say garbage city, didn't expect it to be literally garbage city. Like only garbage. There's nothing else to see or do here besides garbage collecting. It's bit crazy. Like I'm seeing when walking like brands of like super big premium brands and then seeing it like on the floor and seeing how it ends up. It's bit utopian. It's like 10 minutes away, you would have like four euro coffee and then this coffee cup ends up here. And then this coffee cup is in this line. How are you? What are you doing over here? I'm covering my face here because of pieces of glass hitting me in the face. Before it was broken, about 50 kilograms. Now 200 to go to the factory. How much money do you get if you resell the glass? One like this, about 35 Egyptian pounds. 35 pounds? LE. There's like pieces of glass hitting me in the face. noticed that people here, they're only like working. There's no shops, there's no restaurants. Good questions. People here came here for this area after revolution. They have, you know, apartments. This working place here, but the flats outside. 1% live here, but 95% they have, you know, another places to live there. So they don't actually sleep here? Yeah, not sleep here. The owner in this area, sell it for the garbage collection. They use this for separated. And that factors, but their flats, another side. Got it. How much does the average person make every day? From 8 a.m. in the morning until 4 p.m. 250 Egyptian pounds. Nine hours day? Yeah, the day. For five bucks. So 50 cents an hour. People, they bring the garbage without money. No, they go to the manager of the hotel. They give it to them big money every month. Yeah. To collect the garbage, because it's your recycle. Every month, about 1,000. Where are you going? He's go to the work. You know, they bring the plastic to his factory. Good luck. Hi. So this is how they take it from the hotel, like that, on the truck? This is after separated. People go to the factory. Is this the biggest community in the world of garbage collectors? Still in the world, yes. just have no idea that actually all the garbage gets taken from in front of our house, and everything comes here. don't know. always thought they burn it. Respect for some things in my country, have to say. You're not tired of the smell yet? think got used to it. Have you traveled bit around Africa? Not yet, but in two weeks, I'm going to Kenya, and then I'm going to Tanzania. mean, we are technically in Africa, but it's still Middle Eastern culture. Yes, definitely. The problem with not identifying yourself as African, we have this culture of like, we are not Arabs, we are not Africans, we are Egyptians. Yes, it's important, of course, to be proud of your Egyptian ancestry, whatever, but it's not that I'm also Arab, and I'm also African. Yeah, you're all. Yeah. So how many people live here? Not in all the garbage city, 90,000 people. Majority Christians. Coptic Orthodox. Yeah, you see, like, Jesus Christ. Could most of the garbage collectors live here? Live here, yeah. This place, yes. We're just next to, like, all the working streets. It's just across, and this is where they live. Yes. Why is there, like, thing in the middle here? What is that? Every year in August, 15 days for fasting for Virgin Mary, and they hang that blessing for the blessings. In Egypt, Islam is dominant religion, with over 90% being Sunni Muslims, but there's significant minority of Christians who are known as Coptic Orthodox. Their history traces back to the very early days of Christianity, way before the arrival of Islam, and came to find out that the biggest church in the Middle East is located right here in Garbage City. It's known as the Cave Church, and it is the spiritual heart of the Zabaleen's way of life. It's also been on my bucket list to check out for long time. We are entering the largest church here in all the Middle East. There's the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus walking in the water, and Jesus with Samaritan women, and Jesus when he change water to wine. Moses. like Moses. The Ten Commandments here. This church is absolutely stunning. It's literally built inside of this mountain, like caved in down here. The weather is much cooler down here. 20,000 people can pray here at once. You would never think that something like this would exist in country like Egypt. And many of you guys watching this video probably didn't even know that there are other religions living in Egypt. There is thriving Christian community. There's actually Jewish community here too, who are little bit hidden, but they do exist. Most of Egypt is Muslim, so are there any challenges living as Christian here? No, the people, they love together. Don't ask people, what's your religion? No. If you go to the festival, go together. Eat together. Christian, Muslim, they like together. They are my brothers. Good people. Do you think any of your friends know about this place? mean, we all know that it exists, and we all know its name, and there are couple of even jokes around its name, but don't think anyone just walked through it like how we did. It's very random thing. Like, you texted me like, hey, I'm coming to Egypt, and have story. And thought you were going to be like, don't know. Let's go to some temple. That's what everybody does though. Exactly. Let's go to Garbage City. And I'm like, But everybody knows about the temples and the pyramids. This is way wilder. Yeah, totally wild. So far, we are striking out on my mission to film inside someone's home. I'm dying to see where these people sleep and eat their meals, but we're just going to have to keep on searching. That brings us to the school. Jabal Mokattam private school built by French people. The nun called Sister Sarah Manuel. So kids that grow up here, they never leave the community? No, they're very busy to collect the garbage, to separate it. And they take the children from the morning until 2 p.m. in this school here. Food, feeding the children. So some people spend their whole life here. They never leave the community? Yeah. You're born and raised here? Yeah. How has this community changed over time? Government, they said, you know, in the future, they change the life. But we have schools. People go here, the university, in front of medicine, pharmacy, engineering. My sons in the future will be good. Don't work in the garbage. Some of them, they live in Mokattam. High place, very expensive. I'm stuck in the middle of traffic jam in the streets. Look at this. Absolutely insane. People are hustling here, man. Holy shit. There is no space, bro. If you are not thinking about what you're doing, if you're just walking aimlessly, you get your head cut off. How is this car working? Look at it. We'll drive this car there. shit! Whoa. Are you OK? No lines were hurt in the making of this video. Yabba nabba! Yeah, yeah, big, very high. This car is farting. Yes. Look here, take this, go to Darwin Challenge. It's moments like now where wish could speak Arabic. Hey, catch your hat. This is so f***ing bizarre. So right here, the guys are collecting all the garbage, and they're bringing it in forklift all the way up and putting it on this truck, and then it's being transported. We're going up. I'm following the guy on top of the forklift. Holy shit. I'm actually like pretty high now. hope this doesn't fall. Holy shit. Holy s***, that was actually way scarier than it looked. could have easily fallen. He asked me, you know, why America don't open for Egyptians to migrate there. I'm the wrong person to ask. Because, you know, it's every, you know. Applying for four years every year. wish he could come. don't know the answer. What was that about? I'm taking video of her. What makes you so much happier than other people? She's suffocated. She wants to go to the mountain in the desert. What is the best and the worst part about living here? If you could say one message to everyone in the world, what would you tell them? You know, for me, it's really mindf*** to hear Arabic, but they're Christians. Because Arabic in my brain is only for like Muslims. Bye. Thank you so much. Bye bye. That lady was really funny. Yeah, this lady was hella funny. Because most women here are super shy of cameras, but she just like ran up to me. In this corner of town, there's actually light. There's like markets, there's fruits and vegetables and shops. You can kind of see that even in the trash, there's still life. Here's little restaurant behind me. So you can see people eating, making bread. So there are people just kind of enjoying their tea outside their shop amidst this crazy garbage city. You're the first people I've seen eat or drink something on the streets here. The first ones. I'm okay. You know, you are very nice people. Thank you. So here there's lot of life. There's shops, there's... Yes, shopping here. Garbage collectors, every day they came here to this square to take it from here. Every night here, crowded here. Behind me is the sweets corner. And then over there is the shisha corner. Everybody loves shisha. Yeah. It's big thing here. What you saw now is called Ahwa. Yeah. Ahwa technically means coffee. But it's also said like if you were in the place, you sit and like drink coffee, tea, shisha. But it's male thing, right? Or women do it too? It's very male thing. So if you did it, they would look at you weird. You're kind of not allowed to. mean, not allowed to. You can, but it's odd. So find it interesting that even though Egypt is like progressing and becoming more internationally known and recognized, there's still these like gender roles in the society here. Yeah, for sure. As female, do you feel like you're missing out on stuff or it just is what it is? No, no, it's not tough because it's like there are just things that you need to do differently. Here, can be as loud as want in the street. Yeah, that's so true. And then if I'm in Vienna... Yeah, they'll look at you like you're f***ing crazy. People here are very loud and it's normal. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, in Vienna, you could hear pin drop on the street. They don't f***ing talk. Literally, felt so like... And was like, I'm wild animal. Let it go, let it go. For sure, there are things like, for example, yeah, okay, have to like wear pants. Like, okay, it's okay. mean, can still work. I'm still respected. People will never hurt me. can still walk in the streets and feel 10 times safer than when was studying in Florida when I'd walk home at night alone. Like genuinely, like always like looking behind me. Yeah, feel that everywhere in the Earth. It's amazing that the women are the ones working and organizing the trash. The men are just sitting smoking shisha. The women are doing all the freaking work. Yeah, we work here. Just having moment here to catch my breath and just try to digest what is going on. gotta be honest though, people here are very, very friendly. They're all waving at the camera. They're all saying hi. People here, you know, hard work. You know, faces that is smiling, you know, smile. It is quite alarming that they have to live in this stench and the dirt and the dust and the smells. At some point, guess it just becomes normal. But for me visiting for the first time, it's lot to handle. It makes you feel really blessed of where you came from, how easy you have it in your life because people here, they don't have it so easy. Where are we now? We are, you know, association for EPE, Association for the Protection of Environment. And you know the rugs? Amazing. Like this? Yeah, that's amazing. Wow, she's making all of it. This is an example of thriving small business. From collected things in the community. They're making invitation cards. They're making purses from the little caps of the soda cans. Very resourceful. Walking through that facility, it hit me. The world has so much to learn from Garbage City and the people who live here. But still haven't achieved my goal of taking look inside someone's home. And just as I'm thinking that, meet man hanging around outside who seems lot friendlier than the rest. We have big system in the recycling in my area. Where's your shop? Can go look at it? As you like. This is the home. We're in the back of his shop and you can see how they organize everything. By color, by weight. Black color. Black, everything here is black. Yes. This white, blue. Very, very expensive. One kilo from this one acround, 40 Egyptian pounds. Okay. Tons, about 40,000. The garbage collect to collect the restaurant, hotel, buildings. And come to here to sort. How long does it take from the beginning of when you get the trash until you finish? How long does it take? To collect one day. But many, many, many materials and many colors. This is red and yellow. Why do you separate the colors? Different materials. Different materials. But are you selling this? Yes. You sell it, okay. Like this white bottle. Yeah. This another. With your daughter? My nephew. How many hours day are they working, the kids? Start in the morning and finish at six. Every day? Yes. Every worker take 300 every day. Like five dollars. Five dollars. But work, it's not easy. It's so hard. You should have big experience to work like this. You should have experience. So your parents were garbage collectors? Your family? Yes, work here. You guys are very hardworking. Yeah. So, so difficult life. Before here, no water, no building. No electricity in hospitals. Nothing. didn't go to school because... How did you learn English? Your English is good. Really good, bro. Step so hard for me to learn. Because have work, have family. But have mistakes in my English. Not many, man. Your English is really good, bro. I'm serious. Are you happy? Is your life happy? Yes, I'm happy because this is my work. have good relationship with Jesus. About 15 years ago, we don't have anything. Yeah. But now, life is good. Alhamdulillah. Yes, alhamdulillah. Do you sleep upstairs? Your room? have flat here, but don't live here now. live in Muqattam. What is here up? People sleep? Yes. What is the room there? Mom, first fly. Second, my brother. Second fly, me. Look at all the flies, man. lot of flies. Yes, it's more. This is my daughter. Hi. You speak English? You're very kind. Thank you so much. What would you like to drink? don't know. We don't need anything. Keep your money. Keep your money. It's okay. No, no, no. What's happening? Explain what's happening. He wants to drink tea with him. wish had time. We got to keep moving. appreciate you. appreciate you. And welcome. Have nice time. Thank you. hope to enjoy in my area. We need to know the government not help people here. Some people work about 20 hours in the day. It's not easy. Visiting this man's home was real wake -up call. Here, garbage isn't just garbage. It is survival. The future of this community is uncertain. And whether it will last is anyone's guess. still can't believe how the Zabulene have built their lives from what the very world throws away. If we had their resourcefulness and determination, we might see trash and life little differently. Thanks for watching. I'll see you guys in the next video.