Every day at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump in Phnom Penh, several hundred people scavenge through the city's daily refuse. They are looking for recyclable materials which they turn in at small local recycling businesses. The vast majority of the people working at Stung Meanchey appear to be children and teenagers.

As each truck arrives, people crowd around waiting for the load to be added to the smouldering mountain of garbage. Before the trucks have dumped their precious cargo, kids are scampering all over the load to get a head start on the 'fresh' garbage. Once the garbage hits the ground, the crowd quickly lays siege to the fresh pile, chopping away at it with their picks. Everybody keeps half an eye out for the bulldozer that spreads the freshly dumped piles of trash around the area.

Household waste, industrial waste, medical waste, the acrid smell of burning plastic, tropical heat, rain (it was the wet season when I visited), mud - Stung Meanchey has it all.

For the youngest kids, the dump also serves as a playground.