Ethiopia: In a market in Addis Ababa, nothing is lost, everything is transformed

With an ageless bag on his back, Dereje Enigdamekonen devours the kilometers at dawn in the alleys of the Merkato market, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. “Korale, korale”, he regularly says.

“Korale” is a neologism in Amharic, the national language in Ethiopia, to designate these thousands of collectors, men in their vast majority, who buy or recover jerry cans, electrical equipment, shoes and other shovels, most of the time in poor condition.

Ezedin Muste, a “korale” waste collector, carries a pile of plastic bottles in the Merkato neighborhood on October 1, 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

These objects are then either restored to give them a second life, or dismantled to recover some spare parts, or even transformed.

Dereje Enigdamekonen, 45, has been doing this work for about a year, “rain or shine,” he smiles, saying he buys “everything that can be reused.”

Workers unload a truck carrying reused metal objects in the Merkato district, on October 1, 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

For a kilo of collected metal, he can get about 40 birr (about 30 euro cents) and for jerry cans, depending on the size, between 3 and 25 birr.

“Waste can be transformed into money,” he says.

“The plastics we collect can, for example, be transformed into plates (…), while the metals are sent to factories, melted down and recycled,” continues Mikiyas Mesele, 33, a “korale” since he was a child.

Sellers and buyers exchange collected items in the Minalesh Tera area of ​​the Merkato neighborhood on October 1, 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

After collecting, the “korales” converge on Minalesh Tera, a neighborhood in Merkato whose name means “What do you have ?” in Amharic. In the alleys, small tin shops follow one another.

This is where the scavengers sell their daily finds, notably to middlemen, like Tesfaye Getahun, who is in the middle of dismantling a huge printer.

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With heavy blows of the mallet, he isolates the motherboard and some aluminum parts.

– “Avoid polluting” –

Whether it's computers or old televisions, Tesfaye Getahun recycles everything.

A man takes apart an old photocopier in the Merkato market district on October 1, 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

“They are no longer used and if they are left like this (in nature), they can pollute the environment. But if they are dismantled and sold in spare parts, this helps to avoid pollution,” he assures.

The more than four million inhabitants of the Ethiopian capital produce some 400,000 tons of waste annually, according to figures published in 2020 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

And if 70% is collected, “30% is dumped in rivers, kept in informal local landfills or lost in the inefficiency of the waste management system,” the UN agency stressed.

Sieves made from recycled metal objects in a shop in the Merkato district, on October 1, 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

“We earn our living and we also help the environment because these items are not biodegradable,” says Tamirat Dejene, sitting on a chair inside a small shop where cans are piled up.

The 21-year-old has been collecting plastic items for four years and says he can earn between 500 and 1,000 birr a day (between 3.70 and 7.50 euros a day), a godsend in this East African country of around 120 million people where 34.6% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

“It's good for Addis Ababa: if this waste wasn't collected, the city's landfills would overflow. So we're making a living while providing a solution,” he continues.

Biruk Shimeles paints charcoal stoves made from recycled metal objects in the Merkato neighborhood, October 1, 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia © AFP – Michele Spatari

The objects made in Minalesh Tera are then sold in shops in the capital and across the country.

And sometimes even beyond, as for Biruk Shimeles, who makes aluminum charcoal stoves from metals that he buys from the “korales” and sells them as far as “Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia”.

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