Lixão da Estrutural: The trash scavengers

World Today

Lixão da Estrutural dumpIt smells really bad here, especially on a sunny day like this. And people have to work buried in trash, often up to their knees protecting their bodies in whichever way they can with fabric, hats, gloves.

Brazilian cities are racing to comply with a law to close all rubbish dumps until the end of 2018 and replace them with properly built landfills. The nation¹s capital, is nearly ready, but the closure of the old dump threatens the livelihoods of thousands of people who survive on what they can scavenge there.

CCTV America’s Paulo Cabral has this report.


PHOTOS: The trash scavengers

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