[Jardim Gramacho, Brazil; December 9. Image via Getty]
JARDIM GRAMACHO, BRAZIL - DECEMBER 09: Eliame Pereira, 43, poses at the Jardim Gramacho waste disposal site on December 9, 2009 in Jardim Gramacho, Brazil. Pereira, following in the footsteps of her mother, has been working as a trash picker at the site since she was 10 years old. She takes night courses in reading and writing hoping to get another job one day. Pereira works seven days a week at the site earning an average of $17 per day. Referred to as the largest open-air landfill in Latin America, the waste disposal site of Jardim Gramacho processes up to 9,000 pounds of trash daily from Rio de Janerio. The landfill provides a livelihood for over 1000 trash pickers who make an average daily wage of $20 separating the trash from paper, cans and plastics that are then sold as recyclables. Gramacho opened in 1978 and is said to have reached its trash capacity years ago. The landfill is currently set to close in 2012 to avert an environmental disaster but jeopardizing the work of the 1,300 trash pickers left who have few other employment options. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)