Recycling workers collecting plastic bags on Smokey Mountain rubbish dump.

A mother and her child, recycling workers collecting plastic bags on Smokey Mountain rubbish dump. The bags are sold by the kilo, at about 10 cents of a dollar. Plastcis, wirtes and even hospital waste, syringes for instance sell for 1 centime a piece are recycled., Many children and families work doing this work...RUBBISH DUMP RECYCLING. South East Asia, Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Smokey Mountain, Steung Mean Chey, is Phnom Penh's municipal rubbish dump. Thousands work there, some 600 minors and 2000 adults, recycling the city's rubbish, dumped there by garbage trucks every day. The dump is notorious as many very young children work there. People eat and sleep overnight in the rubbish and fumes, under plastic tarpaulins or in the open air. They work 24 hours a day, like miners, with headlamps at night, collecting plastic, metals, wood, cloth & paper, which they sort and clean, weigh and sell, to be carried away for recycling. A day's work typically brings less than a dollar per person. One and a half to two dollars per day per family. The overpowering, acrid odour of grey smokey fumes blows across the dump, from which the place gets its name 'Smokey Mountain'. It can be smelt miles away. The shantytowns and squats, the recycling worker's homes butt onto or are inside the dump itself. There is no running water, sanitation and many are ill. Children often work with friends or relatives. Religious and ngo's help some children, but this is often resisted by families who need the extra income they generate.///Using fire to separate metal from plastic and rubber, a recycling worker takes advantage of the permanently burning rubbish.

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Copyright: Nigel Dickinson/Leader Photos
Image Size: 4368x2912 / 2.6MB; https://nigeldickinson.photoshelter.com/p/terms-conditions; https://nigeldickinson.photoshelter.com/contact; cambodia phnom penh smokey mountain smoky rubbish dump recycling refuse smell smoke children child work cheap labor labour slave earn earning crust dirty dangerous unhealthy illness chronic filthy smelly less than a dollar municipal city outskirts periphery marginalised marginalized margins living daily life recycle colour putrid acid odour bulldozer truck bags fire color colours colourful dollars 100 one hand hundred bill note fake counterfeit lucky charm charm thrown away children working in rubbish dump under age child workers lost childhood slaves slave to work stolen childhood misery despair silhouette dark light alone group team workers sustainable development durable miners lamp battery
Contained in galleries: Recycling Phnom Penh, Cambodia

A mother and her child, recycling workers collecting plastic bags on Smokey Mountain rubbish dump. The bags are sold by the kilo, at about 10 cents of a dollar. Plastcis, wirtes and even hospital waste, syringes for instance sell for 1 centime a piece are recycled., Many children and families work doing this work...RUBBISH DUMP RECYCLING. South East Asia, Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Smokey Mountain, Steung Mean Chey, is Phnom Penh's municipal rubbish dump. Thousands work there, some 600 minors and 2000 adults, recycling the city's rubbish, dumped there by garbage trucks every day. The dump is notorious as many very young children work there. People eat and sleep overnight in the rubbish and fumes, under plastic tarpaulins or in the open air. They work 24 hours a day, like miners, with headlamps at night, collecting plastic, metals, wood, cloth & paper, which they sort and clean, weigh and sell, to be carried away for recycling. A day's work typically brings less than a dollar per person. One and a half to two dollars per day per family. The overpowering, acrid odour of grey smokey fumes blows across the dump, from which the place gets its name 'Smokey Mountain'. It can be smelt miles away. The shantytowns and squats, the recycling worker's homes butt onto or are inside the dump itself. There is no running water, sanitation and many are ill. Children often work with friends or relatives. Religious and ngo's help some children, but this is often resisted by families who need the extra income they generate.///Using fire to separate metal from plastic and rubber, a recycling worker takes advantage of the permanently burning rubbish.