It has been said that "one man's trash is another mans treasure." This is certain for many. Just recently, I was on the front porch of my house and my room mate walked up after work. While we were chatting and discussing the day we looked down the sidewalk and noticed a frame for a sofa-bed. Now my friend is fond of his sofa bed but was in the market for a more up to date and sturdier model. We got excited at the prospect of finding a replacement for free, but found out there were some structural issues with the bed. So, we deemed it unworthy for his use. But I realize, that there is something special about finding something for free and putting it to use. Here, we were willing to use someones "trash" as furniture for ourselves. This would have saved us money and replaced the bed my room mate had with a newer stronger frame. Unfortunately, as you know, it didn't work. But we still tried!
Many countless shows have been created to find old junk and deem them as hidden treasures. Shows such as the antique road show, PawnStars, and other shows that have the host scavanging piles of junk and pack-rats treasures for those things that are actual treasure.
In other places, trash is a different kind of treasure, it is a source of resources, a source of living, a way of life. You will find yourselves those sad individuals who nourish themselves through arguable edible discoveries in the trash. There are others that find items to recycle and reuse for personal use and sell. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, people resort to sorting through the Steung Meanchy Municipal Waste Dump to find "rubbish" that they can resell, earning them a higher income than they can earn in the rural villages the hail from. These incomes equate to 1 to 1.25 USD per day. http://www.demotix.com/news/78400/steung-meanchey-garbage-dump-phnom-penh
Many locations around the world can be found that have individuals who create a life by resorting to pillaging the dumps and hunting for "another mans treasure." In Guatamala City, Guatemala, there is another land fill that has a fame like the worlds other great attraction landfills. This landfill is nicknamed "the Mine" and people who come to the search out the landfill for treasure call themselves "miners." Here, the treasure is metals--precious metals and other various metals. Trash and waste ends up in the landfill and the waters that flow through the landfill along with the rain cause the trash to shift and the metals to settle on the bottom of the streams that run through the landfill. Miners come and sift through the bodies of water looking for valuables such as gold and silver and other precious metals that they can sell to buyers nearby the land fills. Other metals of lesser value are still collected and sold to buyers. These so called "miners" make roughly $20 per day giving them a better income than they can make at other jobs with more job requirements.
It is amazing to see the difference in lifestyles, in what is acceptable in society as a way to make ends-meat. Beyond that, people are choosing to operate as trash miners over traditional jobs because of the greater income possibilites, regardless of the contamination and potential death risks. The water is toxic and contaminated, yet the miners dive beneath the water and surface with the toxic foam clinging to their face. The piles of trash are always being eroded by the oncoming drainage waters and will potentially fall over on top of miners. Oftern, miners die due to these avalanches of trash. The mining still continues.
Now I look at this in awe of why people have to resort to this to survive. Is this my problem or theirs? Or even if its not needed to survive, is there no better option? I would say there is. But something to think about....why are they finding things that obviously have a value beyond their disposed state. The gold, silver and precious metals are obvious, but there are other places that people find objects that can be recycled or reused. This shows at a minimum that we have room for improvement in our waste management strategies.
Sources
- http://educationviews.org/2011/11/05/guatemalas-toxic-river-of-trash-that-is-attracting-thousands-of-miners-risking-life-in-search-of-gold-and-jewellery/
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057891/Guatemalas-toxic-river-trash-attracting-thousands-miners-risking-life-search-gold-jewellery.html
- http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/11/dangerous_work_the_mine_in_gua.html
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