Living on e-waste
On the outskirts of Beijing lies Dongxiaokou village, a place where old appliances come to die – and in some cases be born again.
The village is home to many workers who make their livings from discarded electrical and electronic products, or "e-waste," which they either repair or sell on as scrap.
Mounds of garbage lie piled up after being abandoned by recycling workers.
A worker pushes an air conditioning unit through the yard of her tenement house.
A puppy sniffs the ground next to scraps of electronics.
A recycling worker stands among old appliances.
A woman dismantles a broken air-conditioner to sell its parts for scrap.
A worker cuts the cable of an air conditioning unit.
A garbage collector carries a sack of scraps abandoned by recycling workers.
Laundry hangs to dry in the yard of a tenement house.
Recycling workers play a game of poker during their break.
Children play on abandoned wood panels collected from a construction site.
Children's shoes stand propped by the window of a tenement house.
A boy looks out of the window of a school building, attended mostly by the children of recycling workers.
A woman makes dinner in the yard of a tenement home.
Children play while their parents recycle air conditioning units in the evening.
A woman washes dishes at a tap shared by other workers.
The yard of a tenement home is reflected in a broken television set.
A man counts his money after selling recycled air conditioners to a vendor.
A garbage collector drives his tricycle through Beijing as he looks for recyclable scraps.
A woman sleeps in a shop that sells recycled electrical products.
