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Who knew that people could love their gar bage so much that they grow angry when it is taken from them? Meet the zabbaleen, the subject of “Garbage Dreams,” Mai Iskander’s fascinating documentary about trash recyclers in Cairo.

They survive by collecting garbage from around the chaotic city of 18 million people, bringing it to their community on the outskirts of Cairo and recycling 80 percent of what they collect.

It’s not a pleasant way to make a living, but the participants accept their lot in life. “It’s my fate,” Adham, 17, tells New York-based Iskander, the film’s director, producer and lenser.

Adham supports his mother and four sisters by shearing off the tops of used soda cans, separating the more lucrative aluminum tops from their tin canisters.

But, as so often happens in the 21st century, their way of life is threatened by globalization.

The government, in the quest for modernization, has started outsourcing the garbage collection to foreign companies.

This change is met with resistance by the zabbaleen, who note that while they recycle 80 percent of the garbage they gather, the outsiders reuse just 20 percent.

In the words of Al Gore, ” ‘Garbage Dreams’ makes a compelling case that modernization does not always equal progress.”

vam@nypost.com