GIOVANNACIPRIANI

In Cairo, Egypt, this gallery documents life inside “Garbage City,” a densely populated community where the Zabaleen, the city’s traditional garbage collectors, live and work amid towering piles of waste that can rise as high as a three-story building. Despite the harsh conditions, the Zabaleen have built one of the world’s most efficient informal recycling systems, repurposing an estimated 80% to 85% of the waste they collect. Through these images, the gallery offers a powerful look at survival, labor, and resilience within a community whose work remains essential to the life of the city.