Working with the scraps

Working with the scraps

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Using hard labour and basic technology, workers at this factory on the outskirts of Kolkata transform scrap leather into fertiliser.

The labourers who carry out the crude process – involving cooking the leather offcuts in huge brick ovens – earn just under $5 a day.

. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Smoke billows from the brick ovens where the leather offcuts are heated before the residue is spread out to dry in the sun – a common way of producing fertiliser in the area.

. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Over 100 people work for several individuals who own the ovens at the factory.

The fertiliser they produce is sold on to wholesalers who then flog it to farmers, poultry keepers and fisheries.

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Slideshow

A labourer walks over a heap of scrap leather.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A labourer walks over a heap of scrap leather.

A worker pulls a piece of leather from a pile.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A worker pulls a piece of leather from a pile.

He flings leather from the heap.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

He flings leather from the heap.

Workers rest on a mound of leather.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Workers rest on a mound of leather.

Men carry leather to be cooked in an oven.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Men carry leather to be cooked in an oven.

A labourer chops scrap leather with a cleaver.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A labourer chops scrap leather with a cleaver.

Workers prepare the material to be cooked.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Workers prepare the material to be cooked.

Smoke rises from an oven.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Smoke rises from an oven.

A labourer pours water into a huge pan, in which the leather scraps are boiled with paddy waste.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A labourer pours water into a huge pan, in which the leather scraps are boiled with paddy waste.

A labourer shovels fertiliser out of a pan at the end of the cooking process.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A labourer shovels fertiliser out of a pan at the end of the cooking process.

A worker unloads the fertiliser to be dried.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

A worker unloads the fertiliser to be dried.

Workers spread the product out to dry in the sun.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Workers spread the product out to dry in the sun.