Leader of Kenyan waste pickers: ‘We are the backbone of recycling’

John Chweya: ‘I see my colleagues dying, I see them with symptoms of cancer, I see mysterious diseases developing in them, I see lives just disappearing.’ Photograph: Edwin Ndeke/The Guardian

As a boy John Chweya was one of many children who scrambled over the mountain of stinking waste at Kachok dump, using a magnet that he dangled over the rubbish to pull out metal scraps and earn a living.

Over the years since, global companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé have increased plastic production by millions of metric tonnes, and plastic bottles have replaced metal as the source of income for those who pick through the garbage in Kisumu, the third-largest city in Kenya.