What people discard tells you something about their level of wellbeing: for the garbage collectors who trawl through the trash at the municipal dumpsite in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, things have never been so bad.
The roar of a refuse collection truck approaching the dumpsite on the outskirts of the southern city triggers a newfound desperation among the rubbish recyclers trying to make a living from other people's leftovers.
At the entrance gate two men have vaulted onto the top of the truck, while another hangs precariously from its tailgate, their mouths stuffed with rags to avoid the suffocating dust as best they can. Two others stand guard at the gate to screen encroaching newcomers.
"We just don't allow anyone to come into our territory because there is much less to go around for everyone," says one of the guards, scanning an expectant group milling near the entrance.
Tenjiwe Sihlalo, 40, wades through the mashed garbage, trying to keep pace with the slow-moving truck, ignoring the grit and dirt it has churned up. "Good garbage is hard to come by these days, unlike in the past, when we could get quality throwaways," she says.
As the truck tips out its load, the scavengers rush forward, waving away the plumes of dust, trying to quickly identify anything of value for resale. "You hardly find enough trash of reasonable quality," complains 52-year-old Gibson Hlongwane.
The manufacturing firms that have survived Zimbabwe's seven-year recession have been conserving packaging - bad news for the dumpsite entrepreneurs.
Economists estimate that most firms are operating at between 60 percent and 70 percent below capacity in a long-running foreign currency crisis that has squeezed imports of raw materials and equipment spare parts. Just two out of 10 Zimbabweans have formal jobs, while inflation, currently around 4,000 percent, could hit over a million percent by the end of the year.
Hlongwane has been recycling garbage for the past five years, and says times have never been this tough. "It appears manufacturers no longer discard cartons and cardboard boxes that used to fetch us good money," he comments, picking through scraps of cardboard.
"Either that or the workers at the factories first go through the material that has to be thrown away for what they can retrieve for recycling before dumping the worst for us."
The erratic collection of garbage by the city council from Bulawayo's wealthier suburbs has not helped.
"We used to get second-hand clothes and shoes thrown away by the residents. Now we rarely do," Sihlalo says, inching towards the base of the rubbish dump to prize out what looks like a broken sandal before picking up her bag and heading for an open space to sort out her day's finds.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
