Archive - Jun 26, 2008
Garbage City
Have you ever wondered what happens to the garbage after you leave it on the curb?
In developing countries, trash from the cities is commonly picked through by the poor and unwanted members of society. These trash pickers go by many names: the Zabaleen in Egypt, pepenadores in Mexico, and ragpickers in India.
These people rely on trash for their livelihoods. They spend hours sorting through these huge piles of rancid waste by hand. For them, almost everything is reusable. Organic materials are used to feed their livestock; recyclable materials are washed and resold. Indian ragpickers make only 100-150 rupees ($2.50-$3.75) for eight hours of sifting.
These overlooked members of society perform an important service for the rest of the population. In Delhi, ragpickers "represent almost 1% of Delhi's total population and handle about 20% of the city's enormous daily waste," according to Paul Colombini, who created a website on which Delhi recyclers can tell their own stories. It is estimated that these ragpickers save the city 600,000 rupees a day in trash disposal costs.
Though this work is dirty and smelly, they take pride knowing the invaluable service they perform.
We don't like attention. Rubbish is never attractive and we're quite happy carrying on quietly ... but our work supports a whole industry that's virtually invisible to most people.
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