Powerful Waste
Nadine El-shiaty:
Recycling
October 2014
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Digging through thousands of colorful piles of waste, garbage collectors of Cairo Mansheyet Nasser district, known as zabaleen in Arabic, make a living sorting through garbage to see what they can re-use, sell or recycle from the daily piles of garbage they bring home every day. Traditionally, the process of garbage collection is a man’s job, while the women do the sorting. Inspired by the concept of industrial ecology and driven by a sense of responsibility towards the environment, Ecocem, Lafarge’s industrial Ecology subsidiary in Egypt, developed a business model for industrialecology; focusing on achieving sustainable development through partnership with a group of garbage collectors from theimpoverished Mansheyet Nasser (MN) district. This business model helped Lafarge reflect itsthree main pillars of sustainability. The first is achieving environmental stability. The second is economical. And finally, creating new job opportunitiesand fulfilling the company’s value chain pillar.
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