The Commodification of Waste in Cairo, Egypt: Capital, Colonial Sanitation, and Value's Mobile Frontier

Abstract

Dominant narratives of Cairo's waste challenges frame the issue as a consequence of overpopulation and unsanitary behaviour, advocating for technocratic solutions led by global private firms and technological innovation. These narratives, however, obscure the commodification of waste and the colonial discourses that justify waste's valorisation. Together capital and colonialism transform labour and infrastructure continually producing a system that struggles to keep up with the city's waste. In this article, I critique these dominant framings by asking how and under what conditions was Cairo's waste commodified? Drawing on archival materials, oral histories, and interviews, I trace the evolution of sanitation and waste management in Cairo from the early 20th century to the present. I document how, at the turn of the 20th century, garbage and sewage served as material limits to the health and expansion of the city. I then demonstrate how colonial engineers, and later the postcolonial state, international development, and private capital sought to manage and extract value from Cairo's waste. I argue that the process of commodifying Cairo's waste coupled with the discursive stubbornness of colonial narratives of Western sanitation remain the obstacles in realising an effective and just system. Through this investigation, I urge for greater attention to the historical and contemporary geographies of waste's commodification and its relationship to colonialism in order to challenge dominant apolitical approaches to today's urban waste challenges.