Dharavi, a slum in the the suburbs of Mumbai, India, is considered one of the largest slums in Asia. Here, there is an increasingly large recycling industry. Waste, often originating from the United States and Europe, is shipped here, where young men and women reduce it for useful parts. For example, large products, like air conditioners, not typically found in India, are collected for their copper, whose price has risen and whose source is sizable, but not sustainable.
The informal, unregulated economy of Dharavi allows for the illegal recycling of potentially dangerous products such as air conditioners. In the United States it is against the law for anyone not authorized by the state to dispose of any hazardous materials included in air conditioners, such as refrigerants, insulating foams, mercury, and oil. In Dharavi, however, men and women work, drink, eat, and even sleep in small, concrete rooms where they are exposed to these hazardous components daily.
