What type of problem is waste in Egypt?

Abstract

This paper attempts to show that while the production of waste may be universal, the threat it poses is not. In order to explain and justify the question ‘what type of problem is waste’, the paper begins by attempting to, first, provincialise the ‘environmental’ framing of waste by examining the category's historically changing problematisations in Western Europe and North America, and, second, through a critique of Mary Douglas's work Purity and danger, to argue that waste should be theorised ethnographically rather than analytically. It then argues that, in Egypt, the materiality of litter and the sociality of waste work are sublimated into a religio‐civilisational register based on the central trope of cleanliness rather than environment. It does so by considering various meanings and inflexions of the word ‘cleanliness’ in vernacular usage, the way the terms environment and pollution are used, naming conventions for waste collectors and anti‐litter campaigns.

Climate Change Adaptations for Food Security in Vulnerable Areas of the Egyptian Nile—For Tackling the Overlooked Nexus Hazards of Hydrological Extremes and Waste Pollutions

“…Although solid waste management (SWM) and related pollution issues of Egypt have long been discussed and researched for decades, plus considerable efforts made by the government, the SWM is still inadequate and remains a principal environmental issue of Egypt [13][14][15][16][17][18]. As climate change and the building of the Aswan dam have gradually changed the flooding pattern of Egypt, the adverse interactions between flood and SWM issues in Egypt have just emerged; it is still largely neglected in the research literature.…”

Waste and Its Disguises: Technologies of (Un)Knowing

“…that underlie both. As the title suggests, its articles range from enquiries into waste and its management (Knowles 2017;Furniss 2017) to analyses of populations considered superfluous, such as migrants in Hungary (Thorleifsson 2017). Knowles's focus is not on how cultures make waste, but on how the materiality of wastein her case, plasticityis agentive in making social relations, economic activities, and senses of place.…”

“…We therefore engage critically with both the growing interest in forms of ignorance, not-knowing and unknowing and the politics and economics of wastes and their representation. We address some familiar themes in new contexts, such as the discrediting of certain kinds of embodied, lay, traditional knowledge in favour of what purports to be objective scientific calculation and evidence (Butt 2020;Sillitoe 1998;Furniss 2017). But we are also in conversation with other debates such as the depoliticisation of environmental and other policies (e.g.…”

Geographies of waste: Conceptual vectors from the Global South

“…The case of the Zabbaleen in Egypt has become a canonical story of privatization and enclosure (Furniss, 2017), and much literature on waste in the Global South has focused on waste pickers in the context of ongoing changes to municipal recycling and waste management regimes. In Ghana, Obeng-Odoom (2014) notes that the state is increasingly encouraging the development of waste recovery and private-sector involvement through the promotion of ‘recycling for profit’ (2014: 130).…”

“…Like many other issues of environmental concern, waste has impacts across multiple scales, linking such diverse actors and processes as informal waste workers, local environmental governance, and an increasingly globalized trade in waste and recycled goods. Social studies of waste have inquired into both how to deal with waste (Guerrero et al, 2013;Sharholy et al, 2008;Zapata and Hall, 2013) as well as what waste is (Douglas, 2003(Douglas, [1966 ;Furniss, 2017;Girling, 2011;Gregson and Crang, 2010;Williamson, 1987). Waste is increasingly analyzed as an unstable, relational category that exists within specific configurations of culture and economy.…”