For many in India, landfill is a livelihood and a home

[Zorro]

The children didn't notice the ravens and occasional vulture circling overhead, or the stream of black ooze that flowed nearby, or the inescapable stench of decay. They were squealing over a 4-cent ride on a small, hand-powered Ferris wheel.

The kids are growing up in New Delhi's 70-acre Ghazipur landfill, a post-apocalyptic world where hundreds of pickers climb a 100-foot-high trash pile daily, dodging and occasionally dying beneath belching bulldozers that reshape the putrid landscape.

On "trash mountain," families earn $1 to $2 a day slogging through waist-deep muck. But the residents also marry, have children on their dirt floors, pray and celebrate life's other milestones.

"I am very proud to be a rag picker; we keep you healthy," said Jai Prakash Choudhary, who has spent years scouring Delhi's dumps in search of cast-off bottles, metal, even human hair.

More at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-trash-mountain-20120422,0,2692758.story

A very sobering article.

[cbayer]

1. Fantastic movie about this same thing, but in Brazil.

Waste Land
2010NR99 minutes
Renowned artist Vik Muniz embarks on one of the most inspired collaborations of his career, joining creative forces with Brazilian garbage pickers who mine treasure from the trash heaps of Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho landfill.

Cast:Vik Muniz Director:Lucy Walker, Karen Harley, João Jardim Genres ocumentaries, Foreign Movies, Biographical Documentaries, Foreign Documentaries, Social & Cultural Documentaries, Latin American Movies, Brazilian Movies This movie is ark, Inspiring, GrittyAvailability:Streaming

[elleng]

3. Saw that too, cbayer!

[elleng]

2. Similar story last night, PBS Independent Lens,

'Garbage Dreams,' about people in Cairo, called Zaballeen, fearful that intrusion of Companies is damaging their way of life by collecting trash in trucks and recycling at a far less affective manner, 20% compared with the peoples' 80% recycling.
These people do not live in landfills, but rather prevent them from being needed.

[bongbong]

4. It's the dream

This is the dreamworld of the repigs, who imagine American slaves working for pennies a day while they pick which yacht to use.