picker

picker, originally uploaded by china.sixty4.

A woman sorts through garbage on a vacant site that is used for a 'garbage dump', near Hanshan University in the Qiaodong district - The word "picker" is not my own invention it is what I have been lead to believe to be a direct translation of the Chinese equivalent of "Garbage Picker". In every city that I have either visited or lived in over the past three and a half years people like this woman, both young and old search through scraps of refuse for either recyclables or food and in some cases both. This tragedy is in the country with the fastest growing economy in the world
photo:mhobbs