Dávid from Zambia – XXVII. Blog Post

Emanuel (14 years old) walks several kilometers every day, carrying the sack (in the photo behind them) filled with PET bottles, wires, metal sheets, and other scrap metal. He collects these materials from the streets and sells them to the right people (although it's hard to find buyers) who then make a profit from them. The metal, wires, and metal sheets can be sold for construction purposes, but that doesn't always work out—and of course, he sells them for mere pennies.

PET bottles are a bit trickier:

10 (good condition) PET bottles sell for 1-2 Zambian kwacha (20-40 forints). The new owner washes them thoroughly, disinfects them, fills them with drinkable tap water, and resells them for 2 kwacha each, which means 20 kwacha for 10 bottles filled with water (around 380 forints).

...And why doesn't Emanuel do this himself? A legitimate question. Well, for one, where he comes from, there is no access to clean, drinkable water. Secondly, the cost of the necessary cleaning supplies would exceed the profit he makes from the bottles.

The first thought that crossed my mind when I heard this story was, damn... back home, clean, drinkable water flows from the tap.