The ecosystem of recycling in Tera Compound has a finely-tuned internal logic: a matrix of buying and selling arrangements is in place, people use work-specific terminology, successive steps of the process are well-established, and each person specialises in one or more tasks: raddiwalas (scrap dealers across the city) collect discarded items, waste-pickers and pheriwalas (itinerant dealers) deposit daily collections at the sheds. Vehicle drivers and helpers unload material at kaantawalas (dealers with weighing scales). Then there are the seths who own the godowns, the supervisors to whom they sub-let – and the workers, both men and women, engaged in a thousand tasks.
Source: Hard Work and Dying Dreams on Planet Plastic – CounterPunch.org
1848+: The End(s) of History 