开罗垃圾社区的居民用废弃材料创作艺术品
On the outskirts of Cairo, a community known as the Zabbaleen has long made a living by collecting and recycling the city's waste. In recent years, some of these informal trash workers have turned their sorting yards into surprising studios. Using discarded metal, plastic, wire, and fabric, they craft everything from life-size animal sculptures to intricate wall hangings. Their work transforms what others throw away into pieces that speak about resilience and resourcefulness.
The Zabbaleen—mostly Coptic Christians who have worked in waste for generations—already recycle about 80 percent of the rubbish they collect. That rate is far higher than many municipal systems achieve. Now, a handful of families have begun to put art at the center of their work. Instead of selling raw recyclables to middlemen, they shape them into objects that hold cultural and aesthetic value. A rusty bicycle chain becomes the mane of a lion; bottle caps become scales on a fish.
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