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These brokers are recognizable by the better clothes they wear and the weights they carry in order to facilitate the transaction. The intermediary will act as the broker between the guajeros and the wholesalers or factories and businesses, who buy the raw material found here. The guajeros receive the least. On a good day a guajero will make 30 Quetzals ($ 3.90), on a bad day he may make 12 quetzals ($ 1.30). This income is used to provide for a family with between 4 and 8 members.

The moment these guajero children are conceived they are absorbing the environment of the dump through their exposure to the sun, smoke, disease, dust and the putrid odours of the rubbish and dead animals. It is common to see expecting mothers picking up objects in the rubbish. For many children this habitat also becomes their playground, and even those children who are not involved in the task of collecting and sorting trash find themselves in the dump searching for toys.