The 50 hectare Khanh Son rubbish dump in Lien Chieu District receive 6,500 tonnes of rubbish daily, with hundreds of poor people willing to search the junk for re-sellable goods.

The work usually starts at 7 am until 11:30 am for lunch at a makeshift awning nearby. But if a rubbish truck appears, they scavengers are happy enough to forgo their meals, grab baskets and hoes and run to the truck with hope they will be the first to find valuable items.

Despite the stench and troops of dung-flies, these people hardly miss a day’s work.

"This job let me pay for family and means I can send my children to school," one rubbish dump worker said.

Most of the scavengers here were workers in the Hoa Khanh Industrial Zone, but they are now unemployed, having been pensioned off. Others have been searching the dump for nearly 20 years or even longer.

It may be hard work and provide little in the way of income but none of the people here are considering quitting because of the difference it makes to their family’s living conditions.