A young girl working in Guatemala. Photo: noesnjoc (flickr)

According to Unicef estimates, one in six children (158 million) aged 5-14 are engaged in child labor. These kids aren't working at the local shopping center. Rather, they sell goods on the street, clean houses, or work in small factories and stay away from the watchful eye of local law enforcement or inspectors.

Despite being considered exploitative by many organizations and countries, child labor is still common and occurs in countries like India and Guatemala, as well as the United States and the U.K.

The problem of child labor is complex and stems from adult poverty. For many poor families, working children contribute much needed income that prevents their family from falling deeper into poverty. Product boycotts and factory raids over child labor can sometimes prove more harmful as children turn to more dangerous jobs like mining and prostitution to earn money.

Slate Magazine's Today in Pictures captures images of working children dating back to 1942. What's most striking to me is how young and tiny some of the children are in the photos. I'm used to seeing adults performing the jobs that these small children are doing.

An example of the "trashion" bags created by XSProject. Photo: XSProject

Used plastics from Indonesia are being saved from landfills. And former waste pickers are turning these plastics into fashion bags to sell in Singapore, Australia and the United States.

The fad known as "trashion" has gained mainstream acceptance with chic, urban designers worldwide now posting big profits by using leftover, discarded and found materials to create jewelry, clothing and housewares.

The type of plastic used in the bags is found in packaging ranging from soft drinks to detergent to toothpaste and is mostly aluminum bonded to plastic. Use of this plastic is on the rise because it costs companies less to produce, but because it's not recyclable, as hard plastic bottles are, it ends up costing the public more in terms of pollution and environmental damage.

So, the XSProject began as a way to recycle these plastics. Ann Wizer is an artist and environmental activist, who while living in the Philippines had the idea to use trash as her primary medium. This art progressed into developing the XSProject, a non-profit organization which buys plastics from trash pickers and trains trash pickers themselves to make the bags, providing much needed wages. Proceeds from sale of the bags go directly to help the trash-picker communities by providing assistance for daily needs, scholarships and health protection.