Life at the Guatemala City Dump

In America, our trash is collected and then delivered to a landfill.  There are volumes of regulations about the proper management of trash.  In Guatemala City the regulations involve less environmental concerns and more interest in selling permits to sort. 

Citizens can purchase a permit to collect from the Guatemala City dump.  The permit allows them to enter the dump and collect items from the trash trucks to sort and resell.  You can watch from the cemetary above as trucks back up and people immediately converge on the pile.  They collect anything that can be recycled or cleaned and resold.  More than 20,000 people live in the surrounding slum and rely on the dump for their income. 

Sitting high above the dump is the National Cemetery where families can rent burial spots.  When they are unable to pay the burial rent, the bodies are removed and thrown over the cliff into the dump.  There is no respect for life.  The value of a person's dignity is 250 quetzales (approximately $36) every two years. 

Even in the depths of the Guatemala dump, good still exists.  We toured Safe Passage today.  They operate schools to help educate the children who live in the slums surrounding the dump.  Nine hundred children receive food and schooling in a clean, progressive environment.  They also created a micro-enterprise for the women to create beautiful jewelry from recycled trash.