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Pakistan Resident Creates Homes for the Poor out of Dry WastePakistan Resident Creates Homes for the Poor out of Dry Waste
Pakistan resident Nargis Latif has devoted her life to finding new uses for the country's trash.
Waste360 Staff
September 2, 2016
1 Min Read
Nargis Latif, a Pakistan resident, has been an advocate for the country’s recycling of trash for the past five decades. In the City of Karachi, Pakistan, alone, more than 12,000 lbs. of trash is generated every day.
Over the years, Latif’s non-governmental organization, Gul Bahao, has focused on finding new uses for trash, such as furniture, homes and eco-toilets. While the organization used to have a strong staff of 70 people, it now only has seven people because of the difficulty of securing funds.
Odditycentral.com has more:
For the past five decades, Nargis Latif has been actively advocating for the recycling of trash in Pakistan as an alternative to simply burning it all and raising pollution levels. But perhaps her greatest achievement has been developing a technique of building cheap housing for the poor of Karachi out of blocks of dry waste.
Nargis Latif’s inspiring story began in the 1960s, with a quarrel over burning trash outside her apartment. She fought hard and managed to get the burning point moved, but that was not her real goal. She wanted people to start using their waste, instead of simply discarding it or burning it, but that meant arguing with individuals who simply did not understand the benefits of recycling. So she decided to use a language they would understand – money.
