The main characters in Trash live in a shantytown next to a landfill in an unnamed developing country. Although the book is fiction, the characters are based on real-life child waste pickers who spend their days sifting through household waste in search of anything they can salvage.
It is estimated that there are millions of waste pickers around the world. The majority live in developing countries where there is a relatively low level of industrial and economic development. In countries such as the Philippines, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan, the informal sector of waste picking has expanded in tandem with rapid urbanization and the global trade in recyclable materials.
For people with limited opportunities due to poverty, lack of education, unemployment or underemployment, the informal recycling industry is a low-barrier means of earning money. However, the amounts of money earned often amounts to starvation wages, and it is not uncommon for children with waste picker relatives to work alongside adults. Rather than attend school, children contribute to their family income out of economic necessity.
Beyond the low standard of living that pervades the slums set up next to landfills, waste picking is hazardous to children's health. The often barefoot and gloveless children may step on or touch sharp objects poking out of trash bags and unsanitary mounds of rubbish. Child waste pickers also inhale invisible health hazards when they break fluorescent bulbs or burn off PVC plastic in order to extract valuable copper in electronic waste, processes that release growth-stunting mercury and carcinogenic gases into the air. With global electronic waste having risen to a record 53.6 million metric tons in 2020, the demand for informal waste pickers is likely to grow.
