Trip to the Phnom Penh trash dump

After turning off the main two lane which is now paved it is only a short distance up an unpaved private lane. The mountains of trash are the first sight. We drove up the lane about half the distance and parked the vehicles under a tin roof. Leaving the vehicles behind we walked up the mountain of trash. Approaching the summit the small one room huts come into view. The entire area is thick with putrid smelling smoke from the smoldering mounds of trash.

The people working here also live here. I cannot imagine living a full 24 hours breathing this air but these people live here day in and day out. There are single people and families with little children, all living and working to pull as many recyclables from the piles before they are pushed out of reach or buried by the next truck load.