Category
page 1Waste managers
Laila Iskander
Egyptian social entrepreneur and politician
Chen Guangbiao
Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist
Zabbaleen
The Zabbaleen ( '''', ) is a word which literally means "garbage people" in Egyptian Arabic. The contemporary use of the word in Egyptian Arabic is to mean "garbage collectors". In cultural contexts, the word refers to teenagers and adults who have served as Cairo's informal garbage collectors since approximately the 1940s. The Zabbaleen (singular: ', ) are also known as Zarraba (singular: Zarrab), which means "pig-pen operators." The word ' came from the Egyptian Arabic word '''' (, ) which means "garbage".

John Todd
ecologist
Theresa Sparks
American activist