For thousands of people in Syria, collecting trash from toxic dumps has become a dangerous way of life in a country that's still under civil war.
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00:00 (waves crashing)
00:02 Being buried alive in this 80-foot tall mountain of trash
00:07 is Abdullah's worst fear.
00:09 (man shouting in foreign language)
00:15 But hunting here for treasures like copper and nylon
00:18 is one of the only ways thousands of people
00:21 can survive in Syria,
00:23 a country that's been a war zone for 13 years.
00:27 (man speaking in foreign language)
00:32 The 11-year-old was born
00:34 in the midst of the Syrian civil war.
00:36 Since then, public services like trash collection
00:41 have collapsed.
00:42 Garbage, rubble, and weapons have piled up in landfills.
00:47 And informal recycling has become one of the few industries
00:52 thriving in a war-torn country.
00:56 (man speaking in foreign language)
01:00 (man speaking in foreign language)
01:04 So how deadly is Syria's trash problem?
01:08 And who are the people risking their lives in this business?
01:12 (woman singing in foreign language)
01:17 Singing is one of the few things
01:19 that helps Abdullah keep his mind off his job.
01:23 (woman singing in foreign language)
01:27 He dropped out of school when he was seven
01:35 to work at the Al-Habat landfill in Idlib.
01:38 (woman singing in foreign language)
01:43 He spends 12 hours here every day
01:49 just to support his family.
01:52 (man speaking in foreign language)
01:57 This used to be an old stone quarry until 2006.
02:10 Now, garbage trucks dump trash at least 50 times a day
02:15 without any warning.
02:16 (man speaking in foreign language)
02:21 (woman speaking in foreign language)
02:26 Abdullah mostly searches for copper,
02:28 the most valuable material around here.
02:30 He finds it in broken engines or old electrical wires.
02:36 But he can also make some money
02:38 from recycling nylon and aluminum.
02:40 The trash is mixed up with hazardous items
02:45 like old medical waste
02:46 that could be radioactive or infectious.
02:49 (man grunting)
02:52 Abdullah fills up as many as 10 bags a day.
02:58 Each can weigh over 50 pounds, depending on the day's haul.
03:07 That's nearly half of his own weight.
03:11 (man speaking in foreign language)
03:18 (man speaking in foreign language)
03:22 During the early years of the war,
03:33 this pit was known as the Valley of Death
03:36 because it was an easy place to dispose of bodies.
03:39 Reports suggest over 150 people affiliated
03:44 with the government of President Bashar al-Assad,
03:46 ISIS, and even civilians were executed or dumped here.
03:50 In 2015, some rebel groups captured Idlib province.
03:56 One faction rose to power
03:58 and went on to form the Syrian Salvation Government.
04:02 They turned this into a landfill in 2019,
04:07 and they now manage trash collection in Idlib
04:10 as Assad's government stopped providing public services
04:13 in rebel-held areas.
04:15 Today, there's little infrastructure,
04:18 and collectors are frequently injured.
04:20 In 2020, a video captured an avalanche of garbage
04:25 that killed three children.
04:27 Abdullah's mom, Hala, vividly remembers that day.
04:31 (Hala speaking in foreign language)
04:35 (children playing)
04:38 Abdullah and his family have lived
04:50 in the nearby Mariam camp for displaced Syrians
04:53 for the last four years.
04:55 A Turkish NGO called Vatan runs it,
04:59 and about 1,000 families live here.
05:03 (Hala speaking in foreign language)
05:07 During the war, Idlib province became
05:13 one of the few safe areas for people who opposed Assad.
05:16 The population multiplied to nearly 4 1/2 million.
05:22 Now, there are more than 1,500 displacement camps
05:25 in northwestern Syria,
05:27 but not enough jobs or education.
05:31 In fact, 43% of children across the country
05:34 are not in school.
05:35 (Hala speaking in foreign language)
05:41 Abdullah's dad lost his job as a sanitation worker
05:54 when they fled the war in Damascus.
05:56 He says he's always looking for work,
05:59 but meanwhile, he depends on his children.
06:02 (Hala speaking in foreign language)
06:07 Many in this country are still trying
06:15 to recover from the war.
06:16 Syrians are grappling with soaring inflation rates,
06:20 reportedly as high as 188%.
06:24 The country's economy suffered an estimated loss
06:27 of $442 billion from 2011 to 2018.
06:32 Major sectors like agriculture, mining,
06:36 and manufacturing came to a standstill,
06:39 and cities have crumbled.
06:43 In Aleppo alone, nearly 50 million cubic meters
06:47 of what experts call conflict rubble,
06:49 a mixture of cement, heavy metals,
06:52 and asbestos has piled up.
06:55 That's enough to fill a cube taller than the Eiffel Tower,
06:59 and it would likely take billions of dollars to clean up.
07:03 With trash piling up, military equipment
07:08 has become one of the most valuable items in junkyards.
07:12 Experts estimate at least 100,000 unexploded weapons
07:17 are lying among the debris.
07:19 Children as young as 10 handle discarded mortar shells,
07:24 machine gun bullets, and cluster bombs.
07:27 They're from Syria, Russia, the US,
07:31 and other countries that fought here.
07:33 Old weapons also end up in landfills,
07:37 like this one called Al-Noman in Aleppo,
07:41 Syria's largest city.
07:43 (men speaking in foreign language)
07:48 Hussain Ramadan has been sorting through trash here
07:58 for the past eight years,
08:00 often with his two children.
08:03 He used to be a shepherd in a nearby town,
08:07 but fled to Aleppo when war broke out.
08:11 (man speaking in foreign language)
08:15 Two years ago, a rocket blew up in his hand
08:20 and cut off part of his left thumb.
08:22 But that hasn't stopped him from looking for more rockets,
08:31 because they can be good money.
08:32 He can sell one for about $3 to local scrapyards,
08:37 but he has to collect a lot more plastic or nylon
08:40 to make the same amount.
08:42 (man speaking in foreign language)
08:47 People sometimes burn the trash to get rid of it,
08:55 and it fills the air with smoke and toxic chemicals
08:58 that could cause cancer.
09:00 Hussain's lungs are so damaged
09:03 that he now needs to use an inhaler.
09:06 (man speaking in foreign language)
09:11 Excavators dump garbage
09:26 just inches away from the collectors.
09:28 (man speaking in foreign language)
09:35 (woman speaking in foreign language)
09:39 In 2021, 93,000 outbreaks of Aleppo Boyle
09:43 were reported in northern Syria,
09:45 a skin disease which spreads through sand flies.
09:48 Rabies is also common here,
09:52 as dogs scavenge through the same dumps.
09:55 (man speaking in foreign language)
10:00 (dog barking)
10:02 Still, these landfills have become a major source of food
10:08 for Hussain, his children, and many others.
10:12 60% of Syrians suffer from food insecurity,
10:16 and 90% live below the poverty line.
10:19 (man speaking in foreign language)
10:25 (man speaking in foreign language)
10:30 Hussain can see this landfill from where he lives,
10:45 in a camp just a few minutes away.
10:48 His family of 12 people share a single tent.
10:53 (man speaking in foreign language)
10:57 On a good day, he can earn up to $15,
11:12 which is enough to buy bread for a week for a small family.
11:15 (man speaking in foreign language)
11:21 (man speaking in foreign language)
11:25 Hussain also buys and sells from kids
11:30 who see him as a father figure.
11:32 (man speaking in foreign language)
11:37 About an hour's drive away in Idlib,
11:50 children bring their treasures
11:52 to local scrapyards like this one.
11:54 (man speaking in foreign language)
12:00 Old air conditioners and washing machines
12:13 are disposed off here, too.
12:15 (man speaking in foreign language)
12:20 They also buy discarded weapons and bullets.
12:22 They ship some of the scrap to Turkey,
12:25 while the rest is recycled in Syria.
12:27 (man speaking in foreign language)
12:34 Some of the plastics are recycled into products
12:44 like floor mats, and even turned into fuel,
12:47 while old rubble is being used to construct
12:50 new homes and buildings,
12:52 because raw materials are hard to find.
12:54 Meanwhile, people like Hussain and Abdullah
13:02 pick up what they can, one bag at a time.
13:05 (woman speaking in foreign language)
13:12 (man speaking in foreign language)
13:17 The war has robbed Abdullah of his childhood,
13:22 but he still dares to dream.
13:24 (man speaking in foreign language)
13:29 And like any other mother,
13:36 Hala hopes things turn around for her family
13:39 and for her country.
13:41 (woman speaking in foreign language)
13:45 (man singing in foreign language)
13:59 (woman singing in foreign language)
14:03 (man singing in foreign language)
14:08 (woman singing in foreign language)
14:12 (man singing in foreign language)
14:17 (man singing in foreign language)
14:21 (man singing in foreign language)
14:25 (woman singing in foreign language)
14:29 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
14:32 - All of us.