I recently returned from a vacation to Egypt and Jordan where I saw many incredible historical sights and beautiful scenes. As I love to do when travelling abroad, I try to experience the local flair as much as possible. Luckily on this trip, I was able to go “off-the-grid” with a makeshift tour guide who was willing to take us to places the certified guides would not. One of the places he took us were caves on the outskirts of Cairo that were converted into Christian churches. While the churches themselves were awesome, the path to them was even more intriguing to me.
To reach the church caves, we had to traverse through a village, nicknamed “Rubbish City”, which actually has a contract with the Egyptian government to receive its trash and sort it for recycling plants. Each family had a different specialty (i.e. picking green bottles vs rubber tires) and are doing quite well compared to their peers. I learned single stream recycling in the U.S. is done with a lot of technology including conveyor belts, sensors, magnets, and eddy currents. However, this technology is not cheap and most jurisdictions cannot afford the initial capital costs to get started.
What I recommend should make liberals and conservatives cheer alike. Let’s make those convicted and jailed pay back society by performing separation of recyclable goods from the trash. Simultaneously it will help the environment and reduce the “coolness” factor of wearing an orange jumpsuit. Sadly, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to construe this as “cruel and unusual” punishment.
