Garbage Dreams :: "Can I Really Say No To God?"

photo: Garbage Dreams on Flickr

"Garbage Dreams" follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen, Arabic for "garbage people." Far ahead of any modern "Green" initiatives, the Zaballeen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. 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.

"Garbage Dreams" was the Winner of the Al Gore Reel Current award for film - and many other awards.





See the film for free in Oakland, California (outside of San Francisco) on Wednesday, January 27th @ 6:30pm or in San Francisco @ the Civic Center Library on Tuesday, January 19th @ 5:45pm.

Check here for community screenings nation-wide; it's an extensive list of screenings - all coming up very quickly!!

Or look for it on PBS beginning in April 2010.

If you're into independent films like this one then check out this website for an online calendar of upcoming events in your area! Awesome resource.

Finally, if you are a teacher and are interested in learning more about the films plans for educational outreach, then go here and click on "How To Help." You can also learn more on Facebook.

But what's up, Proctor & Gamble? This was taken from the Garbage Dreams website:

The Recycling School is located in the heart of Mokattam. The school was built in partnership with multinational cosmetic companies, such as Proctor and Gamble. These multinationals wanted to put an end to the fraudulent activity of refilling their discarded shampoo containers with cheap soap and water, which are later resold on the Egyptian market.

The school’s curriculum is built around the recycling of shampoo bottles. First, each student collects empty plastic shampoo bottles from local neighborhood merchants. They bring these bottles to the school and count them. The students apply their math and literacy skills to fill out forms indicating how many bottles they retrieved. Then, the multinational companies pay students for each bottle recorded.

The students then convert the shampoo bottles into plastic powder in order to sell it to recyclers in their neighborhood. The income generated from such sales covers part of the salaries of the teaching staff.