See The City Where Billions Of Dollars Is Lying, Garbage City

By Okechukwu Okugo

Do you look down on certain jobs or professions? Many people do. 2010, in Nigeria, I have a friend who after graduation went into waste disposal; and converted his old Volkswagen bus popularly known as "Danfo" in Nigeria into a garbage packing vehicle. A business he started when he graduated from one of Nigeria's highbrow universities.
After introducing him to another friend, Joe and he learning what he does for a living; Joe told me in private that he is highly disappointed with what my friend chose as his job.

Recently in New York as I was discussing with a friend of mine from one of the countries in South America and I suggested to him, after he complained that he is thinking seriously of a private business he can set up for himself, to learn and open up a barbering shop. And bluntly, he told me that that is the least job anyone can think of engaging in.
Then I asked him two simple questions:
"Do presidents cut their hair?" "Do these richest men on earth, the likes of Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Google Inc's co-founder, cut their hair?
And reluctantly he answered me that he thinks so.
Then I had to remind him that it is not a matter of speculation, these men have barbers who they entrust their hair unto.
In fact I had to make him know that President Obama "flies (Zariff, his) favorite barber from Chicago to the White House every two weeks."
The point I was driving home was that there is no job or profession that is lowly, it only depends on the level one wants to take it.
Other jobs grossly looked down upon by many in Nigeria are: vulcanizers, itinerant pedicure and manicure service providers etc.
Come to think of it, do top celebrities have the need for such kinds of services?

But the refuse or rubbish business is such a special one. Many people do not know that the Garbage industry is one of the biggest industries in the world; which is yet to be fully harnessed.
How many industries in U.S. worth 75 Billion dollars?
But that is what this industry is worth in America. And there are over 20,000 waste companies in the U.S.
To let you know how super rich these waste disposing companies worth, the largest waste service provider in U.S., founded in 1968; a company simply called Waste Management, WM; has over 20 million customers in the U.S. and Canada, with over 21,000 collection and transfer vehicles. WM is the largest trucking fleet in the U.S. and their current market value is $46.09.
The other big four waste companies in U.S. are: Republic Services, Clean Harbors, Stericycle, and Progressive Waste Solutions.

Can you now see that those laughing at garbage workers are actually laughing at themselves.
Besides the fact that they clean up our environment and keep us healthy, they make real money.
Garbage is gold. Trash is mega resources.

Some people may be wondering how?

Think about the many good that come from Rubbish.
It can be recycled to produce new products. In fact recycled products are sold many times over and over again as new products.
Many fuel gases can be harnessed from rotting waste e.g. methane which can be used to produce electricity.      
Waste-to-energy-process is a field that has not even been tapped by half.

That is why first world countries that keep exporting their garbage to developing countries, having overfilling their local landfill capacities, should as a matter of morality, desist from this unfair practice, for the sake of our environment and humanity; and dedicate more fund for research as to many more ways of converting rubbish to energy.

Recycling facilities are creating biomass fuel from garbage that are used in renewable energy companies.  Biomass fuel generates electricity for use in the communities. And this should be of utmost importance to many parts of Africa where blackouts are the usual sight of the day.
Even in advanced countries renewable energy sources are valuable to tackle climate change and other environmental issues.
From the piles of garbage, alternative energy companies have generated electricity from landfill waste and pollution. Even bio-diesel have been produced from chicken feathers.

There are many other things harnessed from waste:
waste water can be turned into ethanol.
Also electricity and desalination can be harnessed from waste water.

If garbage has produced an industry worth billions of dollars in Europe and America, why is uncollected trash still a very big problem in developing regions of the world, especially in Africa?

Most of the waste produced in Africa can be recycled and reused to create new products yet it is appalling only about 10 percent of the waste generated everyday in Africa is collected while the rest "decorate' illegal dump sites, gutters and the drainage system in Africa's cities.
Yet many African governments are looking for where to borrow money when unharnessed resources are littered everywhere.

According to a World Bank Urban Development Series report, Africa currently produces just about 70 million tons of waste every year.
With rapid urbanization and fast growing economies, waste production in Africa will exceed 160 million tons by the year 2025.

The truth is that these piles of garbage should be creating jobs, building wealth and saving Africa's natural environment.

The opportunities produced by waste management is inexhaustible.

Nigeria's sprawling mega city, Lagos, with a population of 21 million people or so spews out 10,000 metric tonnes of waste per day, yet only 13% of recyclable materials is salvaged from the city's landfills according to Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola, the CEO and founder of a waste disposal company called Wecyclers in Nigeria.
Bilikiss after earning an MBA at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.A., returned to Nigeria to tap into this lucrative virgin field.


Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola returning and living in Lagos to handle waste disposal in Nigeria through her company, Wecyclers.

If so much can be produced from garbage, then calculate how many billions of dollars is lying fallow in this Garbage City, in Egypt from the pictures below:


Garbage City, outside of Cairo, Egypt


Garbage City, outside of Cairo, Egypt


Garbage City, outside of Cairo, Egypt