The Trash Diggers

According to the World Bank global review of waste management practices in 2012, world cities currently generate about 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste per year. This volume is expected to increase to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025. This work takes up the case of solid waste disposal in the city of Kolkata by drawing attention to the lives and livelihood of the waste pickers of Dhapa, a dumpsite that is a roaring business hub of the city's waste recycling. Primarily a book of pictures with original narratives, the work examines the work ambience, social interface, life threats, and future prospects of the waste pickers. The author also draws attention to the story of co-recycling, unique to the city of Kolkata, a practice where vegetables used to be grown on a garbage substrate adjacent to the dumpsite. The work seeks to demonstrate the utility of waste pickers in the context of proliferation of city waste, the urgent need for cost-effective waste management in developing countries, the need to understand existing best practices in waste management and to adopt environment-friendly options of managing solid waste.