Countless communities around the world scavenge on open dumps – with terrible health consequences. As the UN convenes city leaders for a global summit, what can be done to improve the lives of the world’s waste pickers?
In the mid-2000s, the Stung Meanchey landfill in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, had the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s most famous rubbish dumps. It was, in the words of one resident, “hell on earth”.
Night and day, thousands of waste pickers – people who gather, sort, reuse and sell the materials others throw away – toiled on the 100-acre mound of festering rubbish. Families fashioned homes from rubbish, on top of rubbish. They ate rubbish, fought over it – and even died over it.
We lived in hell, because we had no choice
If no one worked like us then there would be trash everywhere. We are doing a good thing for the government.
My fear is that charity closes down intelligent thinking about injustice
Related: The world's biggest and most dangerous dump sites – interactive
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