From Trash to Trade: The Garbage Dreams Game

Filmed over four years, director Mai Iskander’s documentary Garbage Dreams goes inside the world of Egypt’s Zaballeen (Arabic for “garbage people”) to reveal the lives of three teenage boys born into the trash trade.

Premiering on Independent Lens on April 27th (check local listings), the broadcast of Garbage Dreams is accompanied by the Garbage Dreams Game, in which players assume the role of the Zaballeen. The game demonstrates that recycling is not just good for the environment; it’s also sound economic practice.

Players start with cash and expenses, one very hungry goat, one neighborhood, and one paper recycling factory. To grow their business and build efficiency, players can make investments in new equipment to recycle other materials, buy extra trucks, hire workers, or expand into wealthier neighborhoods.

Players sort through trash and recycle what can be recycled in Cairo — paper, organics, aluminum, tin, plastic, and glass — all against a ticking clock, sorting through trash piles with the speed, strategy, and efficiency required to match the 80 percent recycling rate of the Zaballeen within 12 rounds of play.

Corresponding lesson plans for grades 9-12 and middle school complement the game and the film, and further explore the issue of recycling and the globalized economy.

Goats, trucks, and territories; organics, paper, and tin. Learn how Egypt’s Zaballeen turn trash into cash. Play the recycling game.

www.pbs.org/independentlens/garbage-dreams/game.html

Tags: egypt, game, garbage dreams, pbs, Zaballen

Garbage Dreams Events Make People Look At Garbage Differently

37 free Community Cinema events for Garbage Dreams raised recycling awareness across the country. From the sheer number of questions about recycling at events, we know that the film sparked discussion, moved people to action, and provided education on the local level. Filmed over four years, Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

Filmmaker Mai Iskander sat down in January with Kojo Nnamdi on WAMU in Washington, DC to talk about global environmental challenges and how the “Zabaleen” — or garbage collectors — has captured the world’s attention for their startlingly efficient, eco-friendly, and low-tech methods of recycling.
Listen to the full interview [20 minutes] >>

The New York Times’ Jeannette Catsoulis reviewed Garbage Dreams. She says, “…this new film digs deeper into the politics of a life that few would choose but many depend on.” Read her full review.

At one of our first events for Garbage Dreams in Saratoga Springs, NY at the Saratoga Springs Public Library, our partner organization for the free screening of Garbage Dreams was the local chapter of GAIA, The Global Anti-Incerator Alliance, The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. Our speaker from GAIA was Tracy Frisch, who is active in several other nonprofit organizations in the area. We also had as audience members a husband and wife who own a local Egyptian products store who were brought up in Cairo.

In sunny San Diego, California at the  San Diego Public Library, Garbage Dreams was the best screening of the season according to our partners at the library.  It was the biggest audience so far, and we had an excellent speaker follow the film who kept more than half the audience in their seats for Q&A. The film presented a wonderful opportunity to discuss grassroots activism and how to mobilize now on recycling issues in San Diego.  We had press coverage from the the San Diego Reader.

Read on for more event outcomes and a chance to win a gift from The Recycling School in Cairo!
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Tags: egypt, garbage, garbage dreams, recycling

Nashville Garbage Dreams Event a Homecoming After 2009 NaFF Success

Community Cinema hosted a screening of the Independent Lens film Garbage Dreams this past weekend at the Nashville Public Library. The film follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo. Regional Outreach Coordinator Allison Inman gives an overview of the event.

Saturday, Community Cinema welcomed more than 125 people into Nashville Public Library’s downtown branch auditorium for a screening of Garbage Dreams. The event was a homecoming of sorts; Mai Iskander and her film were the talk of last year’s Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) when Al Gore presented Mai with the REEL Current Award for extraordinary insight into global issues. Because of Garbage Dreams, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $1 million to benefit the Zaballeen, the “garbage people” profiled in the film. When announcing the grant, Garbage Dreams’ producers credited Nashville Film Festival and the REEL Current Award with part of the film’s success. As NaFF Director Sallie Mayne said, “We feel like a small but important part of its journey.”

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Tags: egypt, environment, garbage, nashville, recycling

Garbage Dreams Events Make People Look At Garbage Differently: Houston

Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present Community Cinema screenings across the country. Last night, HoustonPBS screened the Independent Lens film Garbage Dreams. Filmed over four years, the film follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo. Manar Hindi, Community Cinema assistant coordinator, talks about the event and how she’ll never look at trash the same way again.

I’ve always wondered what happens with my trash. It seems to magically disappear each week and I don’t really have any idea what happens to it or what impact it has on my community. Well that all changed last night. What I learned at the HoustonPBS Community Cinema screening of Garbage Dreams was fascinating.

Houston recycles about 22 percent of its solid waste. While the number shows an improvement, we still lag behind cities like Portland (63 percent) and San Francisco (72 percent). Harry Hayes, director of the city’s Solid Waste Management Department, said that one of the things needed to increase the number of people recycling in Houston is legislation. He talked about how people in San Francisco are fined if they don’t recycle properly. He said if people are really concerned about recycling they need to contact their elected officials.

One audience member asked what he could do to implement a recycling plan in his apartment building, since there was no real precedent for him to follow. Mr. Hayes’ answer was that there was no “curbside” pick up currently for apartment building, so his suggestion was to speak with the owner’s of the apartment building about possibly hiring a private company to collect and haul the recyclables away.

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Tags: egypt, garbage, Houston, HoustonPBS, recycling

In January Community Cinema Asks You To Consider Recycling… Everything

In January 2010, Community Cinema starts the new year by asking you to consider recycling, well… everything you use.  Don’t worry! Our documentary selection – an award winning festival hit – GARBAGE DREAMS will help you learn recycling secrets from some of the best recyclers on the planet.  Meet Cairo’s Zaballeen.

Find your free event, and join us for the film and so much more. Welcome to the world’s largest garbage village located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The Zaballeen (Arabic for garbage people) recycle 80 percent of the trash they collect—far more than other recycling initiatives around the globe. But now a multi-national corporation threatens their livelihood. Follow three teenage boys born into the recycling business who are forced to make choices that will impact the survival of their community and could also help the rest of the world figure out what to do with its waste. Local Community Cinema events will look into recycling options on the municipal level as well as connect with independent organizations seeking creative and innovative solutions to our trash troubles. GARBAGE DREAMS is director Mai Iskander’s first feature film, and is on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 15-film shortlist for feature docs at this year’s Oscars (source: Hollywood Reporter).

Our national partners create unique ways for audiences to learn more about recycling, sustainability and environmental education. Global Alliance For Incinerator Alternatives is a worldwide alliance of more than 500 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 80 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration. The Cloud Institute works to ensure that innovative curricula is available to educators in the K-12 school systems to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future. Working Films leverages the power of storytelling through documentary film to advance struggles for social, economic, and environmental justice, human and civil rights.

Austria is the leading recycler in the European Union with about 60 percent of waste products being recycled. The United States recycles about 32 percent of its waste. At the Beijing dump, scavengers earn three times the monthly salary of college professors. Scavengers in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico earn three times the minimum wage, putting them in the top 5 percent of income earners in that city.

Learn more interesting facts and consider some of the challenging questions or activities in our Discussion Guide (PDF, 2.5M). [Consider not printing the discussion guide. You can view PDF documents on your computer, laptop, Palm, Blackberry, iPhone, or other smart device.] Then join us at one of our free preview events for GARBAGE DREAMS and bring your questions for our panel of experts. Our first event is tomorrow January 2, 2010 at the Saratoga Springs Public Library, 49 Henry Street at 3PM. There are over 30 events scheduled so far with more being added every day.

Our Twitter feed tweets up-to-date event info daily in 140 characters or less. Follow our feed for all the latest. Join the discussion on our Facebook Fan Page for a more in depth preview of events and a place to discuss the issues raised by our challenging films.

Tags: cairo, egypt, garbage, garbage dreams, recycling, refuse, trash, zaballeen