Making a living from trash

Few people know that trucks loaded with waste are the source of livelihood for many individuals who make a living from garbage year-round.

(VTC News) - Few people know that trucks full of waste are the source of livelihood for many people who make a living from garbage year-round. It's a grueling job at the bottom of society, but some people have clung to it for decades.

This story, recorded by "Hot & Strange," recounts the lives of people around the Nam Son landfill in Hanoi during the final days of 2014. At 2 AM, many people had gathered in groups around the landfill gate, patiently preparing for their familiar struggle for survival. Their weary faces, mixed with impatience and eager anticipation, stood out amidst a suffocatingly foul atmosphere.

The entire city of Hanoi collects and disposes of up to 4.000 tons of waste every day, including household waste, hospital waste, and more. Every day, those who depend on waste for their livelihood are stationed at waste collection sites to carry out their work. For them, each day is a battle.

They have to race to be the first to reach the landfill, to get the tallest and largest piles of garbage before others, and in the hope of "earning" more than others. Besides resalable metals, even the most "discardable" items are recycled. These include plastic bags, old clothes, and even leftover food, all of which are brought back to... increase production.
In addition to meeting with the residents directly, the team of reporters also visited their homes to give viewers a more complete and authentic view. For them, the stories of making a living on the landfill are very different.

Among them, Mrs. Xinh's family has four children working at the landfill, but the most valuable asset in their house is just a rickety ancestral altar. The children eat meager meals with their grandmother every day, and everyone in the house still uses products made from garbage unconsciously, unaware of what dangerous diseases they might bring home.

Or take the case of Mr. Hung; the house he and his wife recently built in Thai Nguyen is the result of years of saving and scrimping, of hours spent racing into garbage dumps every night regardless of the risk of accidents, and of days spent tirelessly making a living around garbage.
No matter which direction they turn, the lives of these people will go on. The city will begin a new day, and millions of people will continue to rush about in their own rhythms. The garbage bags will begin their familiar journey again, being discarded, loaded onto trucks, and transported to Nam Son every day.

The most authentic and vivid images, along with touching stories about the lives of people around the Nam Son landfill, will be presented to viewers by "Hot & Strange" in the program airing at 8:15 PM on Tuesday (December 30, 2014), with reruns at 10:15 AM on Wednesday (December 31, 2015) and 4:45 PM on Thursday (January 1, 2015) on An Vien Channel - An Vien Television.

Hanh Dung