Rag rugs made from recycled materials, Cairo

Two types of rag rug made from recycled materials, made by informal waste-collecting communities in the Mokattam district of Cairo, Egypt, 1980s.

This object is one of a range of items collected by Jon Vogler during the 1970s and 1980s. Vogler was an engineer and champion of recycling. His Wastesaver scheme, designed for Oxfam in West Yorkshire in 1974, enabled the separation of household waste for recycling, and later also facilitated the sorting and recycling of textiles. His company Interwaste consulted for Oxfam in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which time he travelled widely conducting research that he hoped would help people in the global south to reclaim and repurpose so-called waste materials.

These textiles were created by individuals and communities in Cairo who make a living by collecting, recycling and repurposing the city’s waste. An Oxfam project worked with these communities to try to enhance their income generating activities through small-scale industrial processes.