The working day is from sunrise to sundown. As each dump truck arrives and empties its cargo, the people descend on it, fighting for their share of aluminium cans and plastics to sell to the recycling companies.

A Mother and daughter surrounded by the material they have found and sorted. What little they make will go towards the daughter’s education, to keep her out of prostitution where so many poor Cambodian children end up.

Despite the awful circumstances they live in, the children did their best to keep clean and keep their school uniform, a simple white shirt, in good condition.

Stung Meanchey, the Phnom Penh wasteland.

The Dump is a dangerous place, full of toxic waste and reckless truck drivers. Fumes from bonfires and raw sewage fill the air.

Shelters in the dump

People come from rural Cambodia to Phnom Penh to find work. Uneducated and unskilled, often they find nothing and come here.

Disease and the trucks are not the only dangers here. The ground looks solid but it is pocketed with ‘sinkholes’ a kind of quicksand of rotting material and toxic waste.

Children join their parents scavenging in the dump. As young as six years old they are working to help support their families. It’s impossible not to consider the relationship between how we behave and how it impacts on people like this.