Constant plumes of smoke at the Koshe landfill. As the waste isn't covered here, the resulting decomposing biological materials create abundant heat, leading to spontaneous combustion.
The smoldering fires and resulting smoke make breathing difficult for the roughly 300 people who attempt to work & live here
Tesfaye Belayne, 80 years old, was a soldier for the Ethiopian dictator Mengistu. After the leader fled the country on charges of genocide, the army stopped paying the soldiers.
Tesfaye ended up here, making roughly 10 Birr a day (less than 50 cents USD) collecting foam, which allows him to purchase a single meal each day. Pictured here in his home, made inside of an upside-down garbage dumpster.
Goat Skull
Ethiopian Landfill
The colossal Koshe landfill in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa supports hundreds of ‘pickers,’ most of whom make their homes atop the mound.
Koshe, which means “dirty” in Amharic, is a sprawling dump in the middle of the capital city. Nearly 300 men, women, and children dig through the sites' daily piles of garbage in search of foam, PVC pipe, metal, or wood, which could later be sold, with a 12-hour day yielding just roughly .50 cents USD (65 Birr).
The ‘picker’s makeshift homes–created out of corrugated tin, plastic tarp, and, in some cases, overturned dumpsters–are inundated with smoke and debris all day long as the mounds of garbage, rising over 130 feet (roughly the height of a thirteen-story building), contain immense concentrations of biological and hazardous waste. As the material decomposes, it creates substantial heat, which releases highly flammable methane gas that spontaneously combusts, leading to constant fires and plumes of noxious gas that make the air barely breathable.
The Ethiopian government had plans to transition the site to a biogas plant project using this very waste as fuel to generate carbon credits, but the project's implementation faced challenges. The plant, intended to capture and burn methane produced by the waste, would have allowed Ethiopia to sell carbon credits on the global market, with the revenue planned to be used for transforming the landfill into a park and creating jobs for waste pickers. However, the city government failed to relocate the dumpsite, and the project was not implemented as intended.
Makeshift home of Elhad Tsaye
Portrait of Elhad Tsaye in front of his home in the landfill
Dogs scavenge for bits of food
Women also scavenge in the landfill. Liya Getachew, 26, sifts through rubbish in search of small metal items that she can resell. Each picker generally specializes in a material, with the majority of women choosing metal as it requires more meticulousness. She started working in the Koshe site when she was 14 and now must support her 3 children “picking
Western countries often sell E-waste to Africa, China & India, ending up in landfills like this one
"Pickers" searching for materials to resell as they eek out a living at the Koshe Landfill site. Each picker specializes in metal, foam, or PVC pipe that they'll later resell. Most make less than $1 per day, having few other options for work.
Spontaneous combustion of decomposing biological waste creates fire and smoke
