Corpses and free secondhand. Homeless Kolya about life in the Chelyabinsk landfill. Illegal life of landfills: from homeless settlements to food trade Search how homeless people live in landfills

, the author of the "Blood and Sweat" project, travels the world and shoots reports about people who are forced to earn their living by hard work in inhuman conditions. Some of the heroes of the photo project are refugees from Myanmar who live and work in a Thai landfill. Sergey told the site about life, from which they run to the trash, opportunities that do not exist, and hopelessness, which is worse than a nauseating smell.

About camp and dump

Initially, I went north to the city of Mae Sot to end up in a refugee camp from Myanmar. There are several of them in the whole kingdom, but Mae La is the largest: it is about thirty years old, the population at the peak of the population reaches 55 thousand people, and the camp itself stretches for seven kilometers. And then the volunteers from the guest house where I was staying told me about a landfill nearby, where the same refugees from Myanmar live and work. So I ended up there.

Everything is very bad in Myanmar, so at every opportunity the Burmese try to flee to Thailand. Many times I wondered why some of them go to the camp, and some go to the landfill, but I never found an answer. Some live in absolutely hellish conditions and receive mere pennies for their work, while the same people live in the camp absolutely comfortably and, as it seemed to me from the outside, a completely different, happy life. In many houses there are satellite dishes, residents have tablets and smartphones, children run around with phones. Good life for refugees. But in the landfill - a real hell. But in Myanmar people are kidnapped, the slave trade is developed there, plus constant ethno-religious conflicts and a high probability that you can easily be killed. It turns out that even such a monstrous life in the garbage dump is better for these refugees than life at home.

About life in the trash

The smell in the landfill is simply nauseating, it cannot be expressed in words. All garbage is brought there: there is broken glass, and sharp metal, and mountains of used syringes. And children run around there, some in shoes, some barefoot.

The refugee village also stands right on the rubbish heap. The houses are absolutely typical for Asia: made of bamboo and “raised” half a meter above the ground. In fact, they are just huts, in which there is nothing in common: people sleep on the floor (someone has beds), sometimes some part of the room is fenced off from the kitchen. The kitchen itself is a corner of one or two meters, where there are basins and buckets of water. There they cook, and wash dishes, and wash themselves.

About work, education and medicine

Several times a day, trucks with garbage come here, and as soon as it is dumped, people immediately appear. They cut the bags with special curved sickle-like knives, sort through the garbage, fish out what seems to them the most valuable, and put it in their own bags. Having stuffed them, they take them to an intermediate “sorting point” and already there they are engaged in a thorough analysis: plastic bottles - separately, metal - separately, glass - separately. Then another car arrives and takes away. In order to somehow feed themselves, a week everyone must sort at least 35 bags of garbage.

The whole family is busy with work, including children. I saw elderly people, middle-aged people, and very young people, three or four years old, in the dump. Not far from the landfill, right on its border, there is a school where children are taught by volunteers, but not everyone can afford to send a child to school, although it is free. Because if the child goes to school, he will not work, which means that the family will have less income. By the way, I did not notice either the hospital or the clinic. They probably cope with minor illnesses on their own, but if something is more serious, they will not even have the money to see a doctor. Most likely, because of the terrible unsanitary conditions, the mortality rate there is very high.

About another attitude

About hopelessness

It's really hard to be there. Not physically - you get used to the nauseating smell pretty quickly, but emotionally. The realization that this is how people live, this is how children live, weighs heavily. Even when I left there, I was depressed for a long time: sad, sad, but what can you do? Nothing. There is enough of this everywhere, the landfill in Mae Sot is not the only such place of us on earth, almost all of us live like this.

About good and evil

These people really do not have the opportunity to either get a good job or find a job. Their only need is to save their lives, and only then - to survive and get food. And that's it. Most likely, they do not even think about the existence of another world, although they definitely have some kind of meaningfulness and understanding of what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is not. For example, when I came to the landfill for the second time to give the children gifts for the New Year, they took me to their village. There it was necessary to go first along the “road”, where a path was cleared among the mountains of garbage, and then along the “off-road”, where there is nothing but garbage. And a child of four years old ran forward, found sheets of foam and began to throw them on top of the garbage, as if they were steps, so that I could climb them without stepping on the garbage. That is, at some intuitive level, he understands that everything around him is wrong.

About feeling happy

I didn't think these people were unhappy. There is a lot of poverty in Asia in general, but you look around and you don’t get the feeling that the locals are disappointed with life. It is in our streets that everyone is gloomy and gloomy, but there they are friendly and smiling.

Prepared by: Julia Isaeva

The finds are impressive: almost a whole smartphone, expensive dishes ... Plus, there was a resident of the village of Barvikha, who completely furnished her modest house with luxury items from these very spontaneous dumps.

Finding a "prestigious" dump without outside help was not so easy. And getting on it is even more difficult. All cottage villages are surrounded by a five-meter fence, there is a powerful guard at the entrances and exits.

So it was not possible to do without an experienced guide from the local inhabitants. I had to look for this. It also turned out to be difficult - no one wants to give out fishing spots ...

The village of Podushkino is a picturesque corner of the Moscow region. A little away from the prestigious Barvikha, past the government reception house, along a winding country road with perfect asphalt - and I'm there. The village itself is very large, as if it is divided by a road (Podushkinskoye Highway) into two parts.

On one side of Highway 400 houses somewhere. And here I have another 100 behind the barrier, - security guard Vladimir explains to me. - What about garbage containers?.. No, I haven't seen them. I myself suffer, I don’t know where to throw my waste.

But I know that there, behind the barrier and several rows of chic mansions, in the forest, there is a real spontaneous dump. It is surprising that in a settlement of 500 houses not a single garbage site is equipped, and this seems to suit everyone. That is, everything is available in this elite area - and multimillion-dollar luxury mansions, and marble fences, and statues. And there is no such luxury as an ordinary garbage container.

We carry garbage either to Odintsovo or to neighboring Barvikha, one of the residents of Podushkina told me. - But we do it unauthorized, in other words, illegally. Because the residents of high-rise buildings (ordinary panel ones) pay for those trash cans. - "MK"). But unfortunately, we have no choice but to break the law. The situation is the same with the lack of containers in Zhukovka, and in Shulgin, and in Usovo. But, unfortunately, there are few people who take out the garbage in containers of high-rise buildings.

And although ministers, artists, bankers and other "elites" live here, on Rublyovka, they throw their waste, like mere mortals, into the nearest forest.

Here in one of these woods, in Podushkino, on a tip from knowledgeable people, I went in search of something interesting. The beginning of spring is the most productive time in this sense. Because then everything will be overgrown with nettles and it will not be easy to go through the local ravines, and even more so to find something.

Correspondent of "MK" found a lot of valuables in Rublev's garbage heaps

The dump begins immediately behind the last fence from the side of the forest. There is also a sign saying "GARBAGE Dump IS FORBIDDEN!". But no one pays attention to her. By the way, a certain man was walking towards me with an empty bucket. Obviously, he did not go for mushrooms ...

It is immediately evident that the users of these unauthorized dumps are well-to-do people: packages from an elite chain supermarket are lying around. Scattered bottles of expensive French wines and champagne. You can see packages of varietal cheeses. But garbage is garbage, albeit from under expensive food. It does not decorate the picturesque forest road in any way.

To find something worthwhile, one must go deeper into the forest. With a specially prepared stick - a handle from a shovel - I rake the rubble. ABOUT! A completely whole plate, however, already dirty from lying in the snow and rain. Villeroy & Boch branded label on the bottom of the vessel. On average, this costs 1500 apiece.

Luxury dishes are not uncommon in the trash in the area of ​​rich houses

Further in the forest I find a plasma TV. The screen is broken. Of course, it is difficult now to understand what condition this household appliance was in when it ended up in this ravine. Most likely out of service. But I personally handed over a 10-year-old washing machine for recycling last year. Not only was she taken out, they also paid me 1,000 rubles. Move on.

Utterly habitable utensils - tea cups, forks and spoons - were visible among the garbage bags in full. We won't even count them as finds. Although if these dishes were sent to the flea market, of which there are now many in the capital, then a thousand or two could be saved.

I came across photo frames, books and magazines (all about the glamorous life, by the way). Clothes were regularly displayed among the leftovers - once expensive jackets (now this can only be judged by the quality of the buttons), I saw one sheepskin coat of good manufacture. Moreover, it is clearly not worn to holes, but has fallen into disrepair precisely because of lying in the snow and rain. Shoes. A lot of shoes - boots, boots, rubber slippers of a well-known American brand, sneakers that are not torn at all.

At the very end of the walk, which lasted about an hour, I found, perhaps, the most valuable thing - an iPhone of the fifth model. It was evident that he had just fallen out of the bag - the screen with a crack was not yet covered with dirt. Here, almost in its original form, he lonely perched not far from the garbage bag.

Later, I found out at the nearest radio market that the phone is easy to repair - a broken part is changed for about 5,000 rubles. But even if you do not change anything, you can easily sell such a mobile phone on the Internet for 4,000 rubles.

In total, my catch in terms of rubles is about 7,000 rubles (if I were not too lazy to take out and recycle a broken TV and wash all the forks and spoons). And it's less than an hour.

On the way back, leaving the forest, I met a woman. She looked at me photographing trash with disbelief. I explained that I was from the newspaper.

Oh, of course, she breathed a sigh of relief. - Write, write. I go jogging in the morning every day. And my heart just bleeds. After all, it’s not strangers who crap - we have a pass through passes. Do you know who lives here, in these houses? All former ministers.

- And you, Elena, where do you take out the garbage? As far as I understand, here you have a problem with this.

We pay separately for each arrival of the car. This is about 1000 rubles at a time. They have prices - 160 rubles for a 120-liter bag. That's when 6-7 bags are typed, then we call. Somewhere once every 1.5-2 weeks. But this, of course, is terribly inconvenient. Imagine what happens to the garbage in a week! True, we have a worker who looks after the house, an economic woman - she organized a silo pit in the backyard, where she dumps food waste. Burns paper. So the garbage became, of course, much less.

- Did you find anything valuable here, in this garbage dump?

Oops, I don't care for trash...

Polina Kozlova, a neighbor of a healthy lifestyle lover, does not disdain garbage dumps.

I do not go here to find something, - the woman admits. - It's just that my husband and I are one of the few who are really worried about the topic of garbage in our village. Starting in the spring, we regularly organize subbotniks, which are joined by some neighbors, but not all. We hire a huge garbage truck, we hire workers and clear the forest. It is in the process of this cleaning - I myself use a rake on these subbotniks - that all sorts of valuables are found.

As it turned out, Polina is a fairly well-known person in the Barvikha rural settlement, although she has been living here relatively recently.

I myself am from Smolensk. I moved to these places about 10 years ago, when I was invited to work in a ministry near Moscow.

As office housing, Polina and her family were allocated a dilapidated old wooden house in Podushkino, which all her predecessors refused. She still lives in it, having bought a house. The house is very modest by local standards, but cozy.

Polina Kozlova, a resident of the Podushkino village, and her finds - old flatbed maps of the surroundings of Barvikha

Although I, of course, am a millionaire, Polina jokes. - We have 25 acres, and the prices here for land are hoo. True, when I first saw my new home, I was very upset, as it was a sad sight - a hundred-year-old log house littered with garbage. But when we began to rake up the rubble, we found a decent, albeit old, house. There was even some furniture in it - an old sideboard, which we washed and use with pleasure.

Having put the house in order, the active woman took up the analysis of the spontaneous garbage can in the neighboring ravine. And it turned out that...

- ... The situation in my house moved to me entirely from Rublev's garbage dumps, - Polina laughs. “I haven’t found anything in all these years. And you would find it if you dug properly. It’s not the earth, but entirely a puff cake made of garbage.

Both the wardrobe and the baskets are all Polina's finds in the surrounding landfills.

I asked Polina to comment on my findings today.

ABOUT! I often find such plates, - Polina rejoices, like the first mushroom. - I have a whole set at home. In the process of another subbotnik, a heavy wooden box was found right next to my house. We opened it with my mother, and there is a brand new service. Honestly, at that time I didn’t even know that this was some kind of expensive company. Then only my husband looked on the Internet. I have several versions of how such luxury ended up in a landfill. First: when moving, someone threw it out in a mess. Second: divorce, just at that time we had some neighbors loudly and scandalously divorced. Maybe one of the spouses threw out the service in retaliation, for example, it was a wedding gift. Well, perhaps the servants tried to steal a valuable thing from the owners' house, they hid the service in the bushes, but they could not pick it up.

Polina's fantasy is all right.

As for household appliances, you are very lucky, - the woman continues. - Here we have migrant workers in Barvikha, they regularly comb local garbage dumps for such valuables. Last year, one of them boasted to me of a perfectly serviceable refrigerator. They also collected all the furniture for their home here. Carpets, paintings. But they do not collect more for themselves, but for sale.

The woman invited me to her home to show her findings. First of all, Polina boasted of the same service. Snow-white plates serve in the family only on holidays.

I love old things very much, - the woman admits. - They are with soul, with history. Look here - an icon. Also from our ravine. Lying in a pile of garbage, dirty, but even the glass was not broken. I made inquiries: the icon has no historical or artistic value whatsoever. And the former owners, apparently, did not think about the spiritual value.

Small, but perfectly intact figurines. Some baskets, pretty vases, absolutely clean and beautiful carpets, bookcases, old oak doors, samovars, a bookcase from the middle of the last century, a rare rotary telephone. Huge coat of arms of Russia embroidered with golden threads.

Look how expensive cloth is. It hasn't deteriorated at all from being outside for a long time.

- Were there any portraits of the President?

Not yet. But after the disbandment of our forestry (neighboring house), I found old tablet maps in the trash. Look, they still have a forest, which is now gone - everything is built up. Maps are a historical document. Now they decorate the wall in the nursery in beautiful frames.

But the point is not even how many valuables I have found in these 10 years. And the fact that the situation does not change at all. Sanctioned garbage collection, as we did not have in Barvikha, and still does not exist. I raise the rubbish question at every village gathering, all to no avail. They tell me: go with your trash, we have other great things to do here. True, which ones are unclear. Exactly the same forest on the other side is littered with garbage in the same way. Behind every village on Rublyovka there is a gully like this.

What can I say, culture, upbringing and love for the land on which you live cannot be bought for any money. The rich residents of Rublyovka demonstrate this with their garbage ravines.

Golden dregs of society

More than 5 billion tons of waste is generated in Russia every year. Only one food in our country, each resident carries more than 56 kilograms annually to the trash heaps. Plus, each supermarket daily writes off up to 50 kg of delay.

All these wastes end up in landfills, where they begin a second life. Illegal settlements of the homeless grow up around each landfill. It has its own laws and rules of life.

Who are these people who daily agree to rummage through the trash? How can expired products end up on the table of an ordinary Russian? And how do ordinary people live next to the landfills? About life among the garbage - in the material "MK".

From a distance, any solid waste landfill resembles a mountain with steep slopes. In fact, this is the mountain. Garbage. Over the years of uncontrolled use, the body of the landfill, where the MK correspondent went, has grown to the height of a 5-story building. This is measured from ground level. From sea level, a pile of waste rises to 197 meters. In terms of area on the territory of this dump, a residential microdistrict could well be accommodated.

Seagulls are always circling over the landfill. If the cry of these birds announces the district, then the landfill is alive. Seagulls do not fly over the place where the MK correspondent arrived - they have not been carrying garbage here for the second month already.

But illegal life continues to boil around the object. Near each dump there are settlements of the homeless. These people work at the landfill, sorting waste. And they feed at the expense of the same landfill.

The homeless settlement is located just a hundred meters from the outskirts of the village, where more than 1,500 people live. And while all these people dream that the landfill will be recultivated, their illegal neighbors warmly recall life in the hospitable garbage dump.

We deliberately do not mention the name of the landfill - it is quite far from Moscow and the Moscow region, in one of the regions of the Central Federal District. But life is built in a similar way at almost any solid waste storage facility in Russia. This is a standard polygon in the city of N.

garbage wind

Behind the forest belt, the residents of the nearest village cannot see the garbage mountain itself. But you feel the landfill all the time - by smell. Sweet, barely perceptible. Everything is impregnated with it - clothes, bag, hair. Hair especially.

You can’t even imagine what happened here until the work of the landfill was suspended, residents of the village closest to the facility are indignant. - The stench was sometimes such that I had to cover my nose with a damp cloth. People felt sick, as if they had constant toxicosis.

Garbage wind from the landfill does not always come. For example, in summer, at a temperature of 20-25 degrees, the smell is almost not felt. But as soon as the thermometer rises another five degrees, the waste begins to exude a stench with a vengeance. The stench covers the village after the rains. But especially in the morning hours, when the evaporation that has risen during the night is nailed to the ground with dew.

The presence of a solid waste object can be felt not only by smell, but also by garbage heaps in the nearest forest belt. They, like beacons, indicate the fairway to the town of the homeless. It is a hundred meters deep into the forest from the nearest street in this village.

The homeless settlement does not need a fence - it is replaced by a pack of dogs. As if on command, they surround the strangers with a ring, begin to bark heart-rendingly. Here begins the territory where it is better not to meddle without a guide.

Vladimir lived at the training ground for 16 winters. Now preparing for the seventeenth.

Dogs replace local homeless people not only as guards. They are also here as an alarm. If the animals bark, then either the police or the “greens” came.

The settlement was empty in minutes. People fled, leaving a half-eaten lunch. The soup is cooling in the pot. In appearance - pea, the smell is more reminiscent of fish. On the second - sausages and spoiled cucumber. Frightened flies hover over food.

Around the camp, clothes are hung on clotheslines to dry. Mostly socks and shorts. The underwear, the homeless will later explain to me, they wash more often than other things. Simply because it is problematic to find underpants and socks suitable for wear in a landfill. These things are rarely thrown away by people in a normal state. These jeans can be worn and thrown away. Socks without holes should be protected.

In the corners of the camp there are several huts covered with oilcloth. There are no doors, they are replaced by thrown rags. Inside is a pile of greasy blankets. On the "bedside" bedside table - a stack of books and ... a cell phone.

And why are you surprised, now every homeless person has a mobile phone, - explains Alexander accompanying me, who has been trying to close the landfill for four years now. - Especially for those who live in the garbage. They find technology here. I remember one homeless man even had a tablet. Moreover, while the town was functioning at full capacity, they even had electricity. The homeless could charge their phones and listen to the radio. They even went online!

A few months ago, about 40 homeless people lived around the landfill. Garbage slums consisted of several "streets". Now almost all the inhabitants have moved to other landfills. Only the old-timers remained here.

"Live" sausage from the garbage

Move on. In fact, the city of the homeless is a temporary shelter scattered through the forest, surrounded by heaps of garbage. "Our haciendas," the homeless say ironically. Vladimir lives only half a kilometer from the landfill fence. Here, about 8 years ago, he built a dugout for himself. Only he has capital housing in the settlement.

Volodya is a free resident of the city of homeless people. He, so to speak, is not in the pack. That is why he calmly speaks to reporters.

We found a homeless man at dinner. For the sake of formality, he invites us to the table. Hearing our expected refusal, he remarks:

I know that you will not agree to eat from the garbage dump. Although before, believe me, such “shops” came here that you cannot find such delicacies in the most elite supermarket! ..

"Shops" in the landfill are trucks with expired food. Or non-customs products.

There are "shops" meat, dairy. And they come with clothes, perfumery, - explains Vladimir. - I don’t use eau de toilette myself, but, for example, when I showed them the bottles, the local guys said that the ones they brought to the landfill are sold in the city for 5-7 thousand.

Of the delicacies, Vladimir most of all remembered red caviar.

They brought her a whole car a year ago. Not spoiled - smuggled. I remember that in one year there was so much of it that we did not even collect it. She's not nutritious. Don't eat much. Yes, and then you will get drunk.

The inhabitants of the landfill are also wary of meat "shops".

We do not take meat, boiled sausage - too. These products need a day to dry out. But we prepare dry sausage and smoked meat for future use.

Refrigerators here are replacing old-fashioned food storage methods.

You put the nettles at the bottom of the pan, unload a layer of meat on it, then leaves again. Meat can stay fresh for up to a month. And if the smoked sausage is moldy, rub it with oil - and it is like fresh again.

- Are you afraid to eat a delay?

And why do you think that only overdue items are brought here? There is also marriage. For example, the picture was not printed on the wrapper. Or they added peanuts to chocolate instead of hazelnuts. Such chocolate is taken to the landfill by cars.

Vladimir is silent for a few minutes. Then he adds:

And if the expiration date has expired a couple of days ago, there is nothing to worry about. Products are not poisoned here. Only vodka.

Wine and vodka "shops" are waiting here more than others. They drink a lot at the training ground and every day. Without vodka, says Volodya, one simply cannot survive here. And this is not a metaphor. Almost all alcohol that is taken to a landfill is a counterfeit sentenced to destruction.

Usually we are warned that a wine and vodka "shop" will come. We have been preparing since morning. So everything comes in boxes, take it - I don’t want it. And once, I remember, naked bottles were loaded into a truck, without cardboard. On the way, half was beaten. The driver began to unload them - and there are only fragments. But don't waste the good! In general, ours ran for basins, pots. Then they strained - a normal drink turned out. They drank for several days.

In the course here is not only alcohol, but also perfume.

Only not expensive French - this one almost does not give balls, only bitterness in the mouth. And then the vision goes down. But the domestic one is quite ...

Roma were also caught in the landfill by local eco-activists.

A couple of times we even tracked the path of these products, - says Alexander. - Then they were traded at our station from the hands. And in nearby cities.

“The tractor passed - so they buried it ...”

All the homeless people who live near the landfill work on sorting garbage. They are called mules here. You can make money on four types of waste: bottles - both plastic and glass, cellophane, but most of all - on metal. In a day, Vladimir assures, in a good scenario on a non-ferrous metal, you can raise both five and ten thousand rubles. True, and you need to collect a lot - from three to five bags.

All collected recyclables are disposed of at landfills. At some sites, third-party buyers come to receive garbage, at others - directly from the landfill employees.

Nothing can be taken out of the territory. For this, they may be banned from appearing at the training ground, ”says Vladimir.

Moreover, at many landfills, the administration recruits informers from among the inhabitants of the garbage city. Those receive a bonus if they tell about the secret earnings of their colleagues.

However, the homeless manage to hide the really valuable things. And it's not just about working mobiles and tablets.

For example, I picked up money, and rings, and pure gold, - Vladimir reports.

How could all this end up in a landfill?

How-how: every grandmother in a secluded place keeps a bundle with gold, money, silver spoons, at worst. Then this grandmother suddenly dies. Grandchildren do not know about grandmother's stash and throw all her things in the trash. And along with them - and values.

The day is built the same for everyone - in the morning you wander to the dump, sorting out the garbage. You dine and drink without leaving the "machine". Prospectors know that not all rubbish needs to be dug. For example, they never open yellow marked packages. In these, medical waste is usually buried: bloody gauze and bandages used during operations. There may also be amputated limbs inside. According to the rules, they must be burned in special furnaces - insenerators. But such a service is expensive. It's much easier to take it to a landfill.

And so they found dead dogs, and rats, - says Vladimir. - Sometimes, yes, it's unpleasant. Here's my friend once walking around the heap, looking, and his hand sticks out of the garbage. Women's. She was buried badly.

- Do they usually bury well?

Usually good. The tractor passed - so they buried it.

“You only smell the first day, then it becomes all the same ...”

Vladimir lived at the training ground for 16 winters. Now preparing for the seventeenth. We did not make a reservation - life at the training ground is measured in winters. Managed to survive the coldest months - consider a year lived. He says that he managed to stay here for so long only thanks to the dugout. The bedroom of his house goes two meters underground. Inside there is a bed, a table, a potbelly stove. In winter, in the most severe thirty-degree frosts, underground is only minus 15.

And if you heat the stove, then minus 5. Not so hot either. But, if you cover yourself with two blankets, it will be fine.

- Do many people freeze?

No. None of them froze to death in my presence. They freeze their fingers - it happens. And yes, it's stupid. For example, if you fell asleep drunk in the snow.

But every homeless person has a first aid kit.

It necessarily Corvalol, analgin, aspirin. In general, there is no need for medicines here, cars with them come all the time. We say so: the “pharmacy” has come ...

Volodya is 53 years old. Fifteen of which he served. The first time I went to prison right after the army. For a fight. He says he stood up for the girl. Got five years. But he did not serve until the end - he went out for exemplary behavior. Got a job on a collective farm. He did not work even for several years - and again he ended up behind bars. This time for embezzlement of state property.

I stole a mixed feed machine from the collective farm,” explains Vladimir.

They gave him another five years and again released him on parole. For the third time, he sat down under a more serious article - for murder.

Unintentional, - Vladimir notes. - We drank too much with one man, his head went crazy, he grabbed the axe. And what was left for me to do, to look, perhaps, at him? In general, I remembered one trick that we were taught in the army.

When Volodya once again came out, this time after serving a full term, it turned out that his house had burned down.

For six months he lived with his sister, worked "on firewood." And then I had to come here...

Was it difficult to get used to the unsanitary conditions, the smell?

Yes, we, the villagers, can get used to everything. And the smell is only the first day you feel it. Then it doesn't matter.

It is difficult to find a life mate in the trash - there are traditionally fewer women here than men. But they still try to get a couple - this means that you can throw off women's duties. In families that have settled in landfills, as in ordinary Moscow, duties are divided into male and female. For example, women go for water.

My wife takes a cart and goes to the village pump. Brings three or four canisters. Enough for a day.

A river flows a few meters from the landfill. The locals used to swim and fish here. But that was when the landfill was not so swollen. Now even homeless people disdain river water.

We have not even washed there for two years. After all, the “lived” from the landfill goes there. The water stinks of rotten stuff. Once plunged - so the skin then tore from itching.

While we are talking, Vladimir's wife is sitting in the dressing room of the dugout - solving a crossword puzzle. They have been together for 11 years. Volodya proudly says that he found her not in a garbage dump, but on a collective farm. “She worked there as a milkmaid before we got together.”

There are no sad stories here. There are no victims of "black realtors" deceived by the children of old people. They get here only after the zone. Here live those who are not accepted even by the most marginal urban communities. And back to society, they rarely return from here.

If they leave, then to other garbage dumps. Of those who have gone into a normal life, I only know Vera. About two years ago, her daughter took it from the landfill. Vera herself is from Latvia, retired and moved to Russia with her husband. Then her husband died, and she took to drink and ended up in a landfill. Now he lives in the city, but he still comes to visit us.

Vladimir himself has a son. And, as the homeless assures, he knows where his father lives.

He came to see me a couple of times, - the interlocutor assures.

- You do not want to pick up?

And I don't want to leave here. Everyone says: a clean bed, a bath ... Why do I need all this? Here I am my own boss, but there I have to adapt to everyone.

"Schoolchildren drag chocolate from the landfill ..."

The landfill and the residential buildings closest to it should be separated by a sanitary protection strip of at least 500 meters. Nina Borisovna's house stands 153 meters from the object. The woman bought the land five years ago. She says that when she came to see the land, the weather was good, and therefore she did not feel the smell of garbage.

And we finally moved in the fall, when the cold air descends to the ground. And with it - the stench of the garbage. Then regularly we are covered by the beginning of this stench. You only have time to close all the vents, hoods, windows.

Ambre, not always brought from the landfill, smells like decomposed waste.

At night, sometimes the smell of medicines reached us. They were loading something from pharmaceutical enterprises. And sometimes the smell of burnt rubber wafted through the area. At night, the landfill staff poured some kind of acid on the pile so that the garbage deposits would sag, - the woman explains.

In the evenings, locals say, there was a lively trade at the gates of the landfill. The workers of the dump took out some packages to the drivers of the approaching cars.

- And why do you think that you traded products?

And what else, if the employees said: “3 kg is packaged in each bag”?

Some local residents did not neglect the goods brought to the landfill.

I remember going to work, and my grandmother was walking towards me from the training ground: on her back was a huge hunting backpack and a bag in her hands. And they have milk cartons. Maybe she took it to cats, or maybe for sale. Even earlier, our children got into the habit of going there. They took chocolate and yogurt. I remember when the tents were still working, they all wiped themselves around them, offering the sellers to buy a box of chocolate bars, - says another resident of the village, Bella Borisovna.

Sasha Yegorov graduated from the local school two years ago. But he still remembers how, in the fifth grade, his friend brought a box of expensive chocolates to class.

We ate them all. Only then that guy told us that it was from a landfill. But in fact, the bars were not spoiled, just on the wrapper the name was printed not along, but across. That is marriage. Then in the winter, when we were skiing, a friend always turned into a secluded place where he had a bag of chocolate hidden. He offered me many times to go to the training ground, but somehow I was disdainful, - the young man admits.

Modern teenagers do not take products from the landfill. But they know all the holes in the fence through which you can climb into the dump.

It's cool to take a selfie right on top of the trash heap. We recently took a familiar girl there on an excursion, - three guys admit. And lead me to the same hole. They even give safety briefings.

There are a lot of dogs there, it is better to go with a gas canister. And yet, to get to the top, you need to slip past the town of guest workers. If they see you, they'll hand you over to the guards...

“People work on manual sorting belts, which have been banned by SanPiN for several years ...”

The homeless are not the only caste of people who feed on landfills. For example, the Bryansk landfills were occupied by gypsies.

Why Roma in this region are engaged in a completely non-specific type of business for them, one can only guess. But they take away the waste with the whole camp: even small children participate in this process. They go to the landfill with carts, where they put all the garbage they are interested in, - Andrei Peshkov, Honored Ecologist of Russia, Professor of the UNESCO Department, member of the European Council for Nature Conservation and UN expert, shared his observations with MK. - Then the gypsies sell all this goodness according to their black schemes.

- Illegals work at all Russian polygons: homeless people, gypsies?

In fact, all these people, the garbage men you write about, do not work at the dump. The holders of the so-called landfills tolerate them, because these people, at their own peril and risk, dig through the garbage and extract “pearl grain” from the waste, which they then sell to resellers for three kopecks. It turns out such a well-established symbiosis of illegal figures in the garbage business.

Often, Tajiks and Uzbeks are involved in manual sorting of garbage. They are usually brought in in batches and settled outside the gates of the landfill. These people work on manual sorting belts, which have been banned by SanPiN for several years. Fresh garbage manually sorted is unacceptable! But in our country, manual labor is used in almost all landfills. The process looks like this: after unloading the machine, the garbage is loaded with shovels onto a conveyor belt, on both sides of which there are people. Next to each employee is a tank into which a certain type of waste is sent: glass, aluminum, ferrous, non-ferrous metals. There are only several types of plastic - and each must be handed over for processing separately. Now imagine what these people are in contact with and what kind of infection they then bring into public places. In addition, medical waste often ends up in landfills, which the homeless also rummage through. Something even sell on the side. For example, degraded drug addicts take used syringes from homeless people. But this syringe could give an injection to a patient with hepatitis or tuberculosis.

- Can hazardous waste be buried at landfills?

Certainly. Indeed, in Russia, for many millions of tons of such waste, there are only three specialized landfills: in the Leningrad region, near Krasnoyarsk and Tomsk. Who will carry hazardous waste, say, from Krasnodar to Krasnoyarsk? Naturally, it is easier to send them to a regular landfill. Even radioactive waste often ends up in household landfills.

- But aren't dosimeters installed at the entrance to the landfills?

Exemplary facilities do indeed have radiation control installations. In fact, such equipment can be installed on many, but whether it works or is turned on only before the arrival of the inspection commission is a question! After all, if the frame rings, the operator must stop the car, call the Ministry of Emergency Situations ... The work will stop. What owner needs it?

- What should an exemplary landfill look like?

The landfill is already unhealthy housekeeping. The right thing is when what is thrown out by the city as waste is collected, transported to power and recycled. Already, there are technologies that allow you to recycle 97% of waste. Even what seems to be completely useless is recycled. For example, broken glass not sorted by color is not accepted by any glass blowing company. But there is a very simple domestic technology, thanks to which building heat-insulating material is produced from this raw material.

In general, recycling has become a very integral part of our lives. Even the disposable cups we all use to drink water in food service establishments are made from recycled materials. Simply put, from what was sent to the trash.

Belarusian journalist Vasily Semashko decided to conduct an extreme experiment to understand how homeless people living outside the city in landfills survive. Choosing another frosty winter day, Vasily went to the homeless who live in the city dump near Minsk. With them, he spent a day and a night to see if he himself could survive in these inhuman conditions.

Height above sea level - 302 meters

Officially, the city's landfill, towering as a majestic mountain to the north of Minsk, is called the Severny waste landfill. Once there was a lowland left from the quarry. The Severny polygon was opened in 1981.

"Severny" became the first landfill for household waste in the vicinity of Minsk, prepared taking into account the requirements of environmental safety. To prevent contamination of groundwater, the bottom of the quarry was covered with a layer of clay, then covered with a waterproof film.

The original life of the landfill was 25 years. That is, it should have been closed more than 10 years ago. Now the next closure of the landfill is scheduled for 2018.

The height of the garbage heap from the ground level is 85 meters - a height of approximately 28 floors. For comparison, the Mound of Glory is only 30 meters high. The height of the "Northern" above sea level is 302 meters, while the highest point in Belarus is Mount Dzerzhinskaya - 345 meters. The waste heap is among the ten highest places in Belarus.

Municipal solid waste is brought here from the northern part of the city for burial. Every day 500-800 trucks deliver 8000 cubic meters of waste. Previously, trucks climbed the serpentine to the very top, increasing its height. Now the garbage trucks are emptying the containers on the site, closely adjacent to the main waste heap. I climb up a steep, sometimes sandy, snow-covered slope. Step up - half a step, the leg slides down. The working part of the landfill is visible from a height.

The waste extracted for purchase is in construction bags.

Among the garbage trucks and bulldozers is a minibus, probably a buyer of recyclables. He clearly has no right to be here, as well as homeless people, but if we talk humanly, the homeless people, together with the buyer, are doing the hard and useful work of sorting garbage here. Bulldozers of the Chelyabinsk plant level and compact the garbage.

Upon reaching a layer of debris of 2 meters, it is poured with a 20-cm layer of sand. Often, molding earth from a foundry is used for this, which is subject to burial. Such a "layer cake" accelerates the decomposition of waste and prevents the spread of fires inland. A huge flock of crows periodically takes off from the site of fresh garbage and, having made a circle, returns to its place.

The waste heap surrounds the moat, where the filtrate seeps - a poisonous, foul-smelling, oil-like liquid that freezes only in the most severe frosts - a squeeze out of garbage.

In the process of rotting garbage, “landfill gas” is formed, consisting of 50% methane. In 2013, as part of a Belarusian-Swiss project, a 5.6 MW power plant was launched at Severny, which generates electricity from landfill gas. In the furnace of the power plant, methane enters through pipes that were laid in the waste heap in drilled wells. It is planned that after the landfill is closed, the waste will rot for at least 20 years, releasing combustible gas.

Formally, the waste landfill is protected, and unauthorized persons should not be here. In reality, only the entrance to the landfill is guarded - all cars arriving here are registered. A private owner who wants to get rid of garbage will have to pay an entry fee at the checkpoint. At the same time, homeless-looking people passing by are not interested in security.

As in any city dump, people come here to sort garbage, choosing waste from it that can be handed over for money - primarily non-ferrous metals (copper, aluminum), cullet, waste paper. Some of these people have housing in Minsk or the surrounding villages, and some are classic homeless people.

From the height of the waste heap on a frosty evening, a wonderful view into the distance opens up.

Chimneys of Minsk thermal power plants are smoking on the horizon, supplying the city with heat, fires are lit, a flagpole near the new presidential residence flashes like a beacon.

The last garbage trucks for today continue to arrive at the landfill, delivering waste from a large city, making it possible for local homeless people to survive. With the onset of dusk, you can see how the homeless go along the paths to a small forest near the waste heap. Most of them carry something filled with bags of construction debris.

By the time I climbed down the steep slope of the waste heap and reached the forest along the path, it got dark.

Buda inhabitants: two women, two men and a cat

In the forest, near the edge, a shed was built with walls made of linoleum and pieces of polyethylene film. Through a hole in the wall under the ceiling, you can see that a fire is burning there, voices are heard. The entrance is covered with a blanket.

I ask permission to enter. Allow. There are 8 people in the shed by the fire. It is heavily smoky - it is impossible to stand at full height because of the smoke for a long time - it stings your eyes. I introduce myself, I tell that I want to make material about how “free people” survive in such a cold.

They answer, if translated into a literary language, that they survive well. And then the question: "Is there vodka?". There was vodka.

They invite you to the fire.

I hand over a bottle and an appetizer - brisket, bread and several packages of Rollton.

Food could not be carried, especially Rollton - we have food in abundance.

Let's get acquainted. The head of the company is Sergey. He is the only one of the brethren shaved. The barn is called a budo. Sergey and Andrey live in Buda with their girlfriends Katya and Irina. Now they are visiting two colleagues from the neighboring Buda, located a couple of hundred meters away.

From previous journalistic conversations with homeless people, I know that very few of them immediately admit that they have no housing - they come up with the idea that supposedly everyone has housing, but they came here only to work. Therefore, I don’t ask you to tell the story of “how I became a homeless person” - the topic of survival in winter is more interesting.

My buda is considered good. I am a former builder. After all, how is it here? Whoever didn’t build a normal building in the summer, it will be difficult for him in the winter, ”Sergey explains.

Buda - sheds for living. All building materials from the landfill. Buda is a frame made of boards. It is upholstered with oilcloths, pieces of polyethylene, insulated with carpets, blankets. In some budas stoves like bourgeois stoves can be stacked, but Sergey does not have a stove. Buda Sergey - three rooms. In two you can stand in full growth. The first is a living room with a hearth. The second is the type of pantry. There is a bucket of frozen feces in it. The third room with a ceiling height of only 1.5 meters is the bedroom. The bedroom is littered with mattresses, duvets, bedspreads.

Don't be afraid, we don't have linen lice, - Sergey reassures, - we are constantly monitoring this. If we find anything with lice, we immediately burn it. As for scabies, we don't have it.

The smoke from the fire comes out through a hole in the wall. Plastic food packaging burned in a fire gives a special causticity to the smoke. To have something to breathe, you have to open the door. The warmth of the fire is felt only close: two meters from the fire the temperature is below -10 °C.

They drown with fragments of window frames and wooden pallets brought from a landfill in bags.

With his relatively neat appearance and lack of a beard, Sergei stands out among other homeless people.

The rest have fire-stained faces with very clear signs of alcohol abuse.

With homeless people in Buda lives their favorite - a playful teenage cat Masha.

After drinking quite a bit of vodka, the women became drunk - a sign of alcoholism.

Katya is 56 years old. By profession - tiler-mosaic. She lived nearby in the village, and has been coming to the landfill since its inception, collecting food waste for her pigs.

Irina will be 50 this year. She says she worked as a kindergarten teacher. Lived in the landfill for about 10 years.

Andrey turned out to be my same age - 44 years old. He said that he was from the Vitebsk region, he was a military man.

Sergei is 50 years old. Builder. From Minsk.

One of the guests basking in the bud is considered a veteran. Of his 44 years, he lived permanently in a landfill for 26.

“I can’t look at bananas and pineapples”

Remember, - Sergey explains, - do not call the landfill a dump. That is not accepted. We call it the shaft. There is enough space for everyone here. We are sorting waste. You can hand it over here nearby to the collection point of the landfill, having received money, or private traders come directly to the rampart for waste. They take waste to collection points in Minsk, where they give it back twice as much, and make a big profit on this - they change cars often.

Indeed, I saw at the gates of the landfill how someone who arrived in a new Ford Transit demanded that some homeless person work off a debt. He nodded his head, promising to do it tomorrow.

Constantly those who now spend the night in the cold in the buds are at least 20 people. They all sort waste. We give to private owners. They either pay with money, or they bring us what we ask for - usually vodka. We don't need the rest. Products from stores with an expired shelf life, but of decent quality, are constantly brought. Sometimes even red caviar comes across. Sausages, cheeses, canned food, vacuum-packed fresh meat - every day. Tea, coffee, sugar - we have everything. "Evroopt" brings non-commercial tropical fruits here. I can't look at bananas and pineapples. Somehow they brought sushi sets with red and black caviar. You hardly eat so many expensive products at home, Sergey laughs.

As evidence of abundance, Sergei shows a loaf of ham and cheese lying near the table. Next to this lies an old dirty shoe.

Brewing instant coffee, Sergey offers to treat himself to halva in a beautiful package.

Frozen halva is picked with a knife. Since the halva was frozen to the hardness of ice, it is difficult to say something definitely about its taste. To the question of homeless people, is it tasty, I answer: “Normal”.

Take it home - you will treat your wife, - Sergey holds out another package. Later I carefully examined the package with Arabic script. Its expiration date is 1 year, and this period ended 3 years ago.

Here, phones come across, and cameras, sometimes laptops were found. Take it for memory.

Vagabonds post several old, once not the cheapest phones and a compact camera Konica Minolta DiMAGE E500, which is at least 10 years old, but in excellent condition. True, the camera was not working.

The camera was found in the package. Several times they found weapons, rifles, pistols. They were immediately thrown into the lake so that there would be no problems later. Sometimes a lover of antiques comes to us. Buys only old non-aluminum spoons, forks, knives. Always gives a bottle of "ink" for 10 items.

We drown water from the snow or follow it to the checkpoint. There, at the checkpoint, you can call a doctor, recharge batteries for a flashlight or phone. An ambulance comes if someone is sick. Sometimes they take you to the hospital. The person will heal and come back here again.

Previously, the police used to come here from time to time, and we were severely beaten. Including women were beaten. It stopped 2-3 years ago. Sometimes the Red Cross and the Baptists come here in the cold. They offer tea and the cheapest pasta. We absolutely do not need it - you see that we are not starving. In my opinion, all these one-time promotions with the distribution of tea and pasta are window dressing. They come with the police, as if someone needs to be protected from us. When food is given, it is photographed. What for? Yes, I can feed them myself.

A Baptist once asks me, "What do you need?" I answered him honestly that I needed vodka. Baptist said that they themselves do not drink vodka and will not treat them.

We are used to the cold. Look, we'll be in slippers.

We sleep in tights and cover ourselves with two blankets. In severe frost, as now, we will sleep in twos, snuggling up to our friends and covering ourselves with four blankets.

In the summer we wash our clothes in a nearby lake. We take a shower in the boiler room of the former military town, which is about a kilometer away.

Why don't we live in a village where they would give us a house? And what to do in this village - to work for a meager salary? So here we will earn more.

Overnight in Buda

They showed me a place to sleep by the wall.

Under me is a thick, dense mattress. I spread a travel mat on it. Despite assurances in the absence of lice and scabies, you do not want to undress to get into your sleeping bag. From clothes I have on two warm socks, thick thermal underwear, insulated jeans, a fleece jacket, a down jacket with a hood, a fleece hat and a neoprene “muzzle” to protect my face from the cold. In this form, I cover myself with a sleeping bag, on which extreme -10 degrees are indicated.

The walls in the bedroom will be covered with a thick layer of frost from the condensate of breath vapors. Illuminating with the dim light of a flashlight, quarreling among themselves, the hosts go to bed for the night. Mashka is merrily jumping over us.

Oddly enough, but it was possible to sleep snatches. It seemed that I was sleeping at home and the surroundings were only a dream. When I woke up, it was hard to realize that I was really in a bud with homeless people outside the city near the dump. Gradually the cold begins to be felt. Homeless people periodically scold - they also feel the cold and swear because someone pulls the blanket over themselves. Quarreling, women joke about sex with those who are nearby.

The cold intensifies. The second part of the night is unlikely to fall asleep. My car is half a kilometer away. 20 minutes drive and I can be at home with a hot shower, coffee and, most importantly, warmth. But I decide to continue the experiment in order to understand how you can survive in a landfill.

Homeless people wake up at 8.15.

Good wounds, - Irina wishes.

But they crawl out from under the blankets when it becomes light - at about 9.00.

Don't rush to get dressed. After socks, put plastic bags on your feet and pull on old shoes. Sergei kindles a fire. It becomes a little warmer, and the buda is again filled with acrid smoke.

They go to the toilet nearby - the snow near the buda is covered in yellow spots.

Frozen during the night, Masha becomes so close to the fire that her fur flares up. We extinguish quickly. The cat does not understand what happened to her. The men went with plastic bottles to the checkpoint for water.

Food was brought from the landfill yesterday: a package of chicken fillet from Korona, a package of boiled-smoked chicken drumstick, three packages of canned meat with Russian-made additives. The shelf life of canned goods is three years, and somewhere they lay 2 years expired until they ended up in a landfill.

In the meantime, I'm melting snow in a sooty dipper to pour it into the Rollton and make coffee. If I fill Rollton in disposable factory packaging, then I make coffee in a cup that I lightly rinsed with boiling water - there was not enough boiling water to wash the cup well, but in such a cold, the need to warm up was more important than the risk of catching a possible disease.

In the room where I spent the night, it was -16 ° C, and in nature the thermometer showed -29 ° C.

The men return with water. In response to my compliment about the ability to survive in extreme conditions, Sergey says:

Mine is quite warm. Here are the two that were sitting with me in the evening, they live in a buda without a stove. They also have several dogs. Maybe dogs keep warm. Let's go, I'll show you a real extreme, whom we call a jerk.

Sergei leads me along the path into the depths of the forest. Several dogs bark at us.

These are ours, they don't bite. But in the spring, when bitches are in heat, you have to be careful. They say that about 10 years ago, dogs bit a man to death here.

In the forest, at first he shows a solid shed, neatly made of old doors and furniture panels. Exactly such sheds are sometimes made in summer cottages during the construction of a house as a construction change house. The shed door is locked.

Made by a man who has his own apartment in the city. He comes here to change clothes, he can live in the summer.

Soon Sergei leads to a buda no more than one and a half meters high. The size of the buda allows it to accommodate one person. Buda is somewhat reminiscent of a package from a large household refrigerator. A small fire burns near the buda, near which a person warms himself.

When asked about me, Sergey cheerfully answers: he brought a man to look at you, fool, in what kind of winter you will be.

We return. Before leaving for work, a problem arose - Katya's digger broke. A kopac is a ski stick with two metal claws at the end.

Garbage is raked on the shaft with a digger. Sergey and Andrey make a new instrument in 15 minutes - apparently, they do it not for the first time.

While doing, explain the subtleties of the work.

Showdown with fights on the shaft is strictly prohibited - only outside the range. If anyone breaks this rule, regardless of whether he is right or not, he will be beaten. Rarely, but there are conflicts - when someone wants to steal a bag with what he did not collect. We call bulldozers that rake and compact garbage "bulldogs" or "tanks". When a bulldozer pushes a high pile of debris in front of it, the driver does not see what is ahead. If one of the homeless did not have time to jump to the side, they fall under the caterpillar. The driver will not even notice how someone has run over. Most often, drunk people die this way. And drunk people usually freeze from the cold - they didn’t reach their buda, fell into the snow, froze and died.

We earn here, if we work normally, on average 20 rubles a day per person. This is mainly non-ferrous metal, waste paper and cullet. A few years ago, cullet was valued higher. From the rampart, we only come to spend the night. Rarely, but it happens, outsiders visit us - they can steal something.

Such frosts are not the worst. It is worse when it rains, everything is wet, and there is nowhere to dry clothes with shoes. Strong wind on the shaft is also more difficult to work with. And you have to work every day. If you don’t go out onto the rampart, you won’t have food or firewood.

I ask what, besides vodka, is missing a lot.

Premises, for example, a large barn or hangar, where in cold and rain it would be constantly warm and all the inhabitants of the rampart could spend the night.

After 10 am Sergey, Andrey, Katya and Ira are put forward to work on the shaft. In the future they will return in the evening with the onset of twilight.

The future of the inhabitants of the landfill has two options. The best is to get into a boarding house. It is clear that they are not assigned to the best boarding schools and not even of the average level. But it is warm, fed and there is at least some care.

To do this, you need to leave the landfill for the Night Stay House, which has been operating in Minsk since 2001. The main purpose and main difference between the House of Night Stay and the shelters for the homeless that are common in the West is to help the homeless get the necessary documents, find a job, and assist in obtaining housing, at least in the form of a place in a hostel. Elderly people are helped to settle in a boarding house.

Before accommodation, it is necessary to register with the police, undergo a medical examination for the presence of contagious diseases and disinfection. From all these places it is necessary to provide references.

Residents in the house must adhere to a strict routine (ban on drinking alcohol, maintaining cleanliness, silence, etc.), to maintain which a policeman is constantly on duty there. Violators of the order are expelled.

Naturally, for those who always lack alcohol, such conditions are not suitable.

The second option for the future of the inhabitants of the landfill is to die here, as a homeless man named Masyanya died a couple of years ago in his life, with whom I did an interview 6 years ago.

A dead bum named Masyanya. Photo 2011

It is difficult to understand why the dump people do not live in villages where they would be provided with empty houses. These homeless people cannot be called idlers - every day they do the hard work of sorting waste, receiving payment for it. Probably, under normal conditions, these people are ruined by addiction to alcohol - when, having received a salary, a person goes into a deep binge for many days. And only really extreme conditions, when you clearly realize that you won’t survive without working, make them work conscientiously and not abuse alcohol.

P.S. The acquired experience of survival has had consequences. After spending the night at -16 °C, the temperature rose to +38.5 °C.

An endless stream of garbage trucks goes to the city dump in Chelyabinsk. Along a dirt road full of ravines, they turn to the weight control. Already empty ones are coming towards them. Everything is on point, the landfill lives a normal life. However, the landfill has another side. If you go around it and go through little-known paths, you can get into the territory, bypassing the cordon. Anyone can enter here if they wish. This is where the secret life of the solid waste landfill begins.

This area is not fenced off. Along it stretches an endless pipe. Knowledgeable people say there are several manholes. We are driving along a barely visible path, surrounded by thickets as tall as a man. The car won't go any further. All on foot.

At the bottom

The fact that someone lives here is evidenced by a nearby mattress and the remains of a fire. Not a single person who is not related to the dump will go to barbecue in such a wilderness.

Since the territory on this side is not fenced, it is not clear whether this is already a solid waste landfill or not yet. In the depths, where it is really creepy to go, with ringing silence and surrounded only by mosquitoes, one can see building structures. The windows are empty. They themselves are made of several layers of cardboard. They live here, the secret inhabitants of the landfill, who are periodically expelled during police raids - homeless people, illegal immigrants, migrants.

Behind, towards the houses, a man walks. At +20, he is wearing a thick, battered jacket, gray trousers, and a mobile phone in his hands. Black, hardened lumps of dirt on cracked fingers betray him as a bum. The man is clearly drunk.

“Oh, we are lost, but how to get to the landfill?” I'm trying to talk to him.

“And what about getting into it? he snaps. - There's the entrance on the other side, you can't go wrong. And you need to turn around there, - the man shows back.

But I walk beside him, and the new acquaintance doesn't mind. He asks, they say, lost what? Uh-huh, I'm here, yesterday I threw away the documents by accident.

“There are a lot of such cases,” says the garrulous inhabitant of the landfill. - The other day one arrived, help, save, my wife prepared one package with expensive clothes. And the other with garbage, and put it at the door. Well, he took both and put them in the trash outside the house. She missed, yells, hysteria. He arrived and the tank was empty. I rushed here, they say, find it, I will thank you. But it is unrealistic to find someone who knows where the good is now.

The stranger introduced himself Nicholas. With a habitual gesture, he took a folded bag out of his pocket and asked with a laugh if I would go around the whole dump in search of papers? Ugh, I agreed.

We walk through the bushes, brushing the grass with our hands. Surprisingly, here, near the garbage mountains, delicate flowers are earing. Blue, blue, pink. Underfoot - paper, broken glass, food residues, an incomprehensible multi-colored consistency. Unpleasant, there is a smell. But not like what happens in the garbage.

“Lucky,” Nikolai reads my thoughts. “The wind is over there today, it doesn’t smell.”

Around us, above our heads, flocks of seagulls fly. There are hundreds, no, thousands. Birds are not at all afraid of people, they feel like masters, then they go down and look for something in the trash, then they soar sharply up with screams.

Pantyhose, but not corpses

“Your idea is useless,” says Kolya. - Go home. See, there's nothing to be found here."

I see. Around, as far as the eye can see, there are mountains of garbage. Rags, bags, pieces of wood. In the middle of another hill is a chair. Lost color, but in appearance whole.

“Ha, I still found roofing felts here,” says Nikolai. - I'm walking somehow with this stick, - he takes out a thick log from the reconciliation, - I throw away the packages. Here one was caught, tied, new. I take it, and there are expensive women's tights, exactly 27 pairs. All new, sealed, sealed. Good product, sold quickly.

Among the tons of garbage, Nikolai sometimes manages to find worthwhile things. Photo: AiF / Alexander Firsov

"What else do you find?" - I'm interested.

“There are a lot of legends going around. Who says gold, someone money. I find the goods much more modestly. There are also sad finds. A hundred times I came across the corpses of cats and dogs. The pet will die, and its owners in the tank. There are no corpses, I have not seen. But I heard that in the region, somewhere in the dumps, the bodies of babies were found.

Kolya scatters rags with a stick. Shines: Found a decent boot. And next to it is the second one. “And the size is right,” he mutters. And then, without trying on, he puts the find in a bag.

"What are you looking for here?" I ask him.

“What God will send,” he laughs. - The product is good. Products are full of normal. It’s a pity that now they almost don’t take them from stores, they themselves dispose of them. And before that - uuuu - the milk is a little overdue, the apples and pears are overripe, just think, they darkened on one side, how many chickens. They lived without grieve."

Now, Kolya says, he and his comrades survive on the delivery of PET and metal for recycling. There is no waste paper, it almost does not collect: it is too cheap, it is unprofitable to deal with it. Everything is fine with metal: copper is taken at 300 rubles per kg, stainless steel - 50 rubles each. Ordinary, household, 10 rubles each. But metal is now more difficult to find. But plastic containers - get tired. Again, day after day is not necessary. One day you can rest half a ton, and the other - nothing. And, of course, the pay is different. They take cardboard at 5 rubles per kg. PET - 17 each. Sometimes a hundred, another day - nothing. Well, the third - up to a thousand.

“But you still have to share,” my new acquaintance said pointedly.

"Hmm," he didn't elaborate.

Not only the homeless

A group of people appeared at a distance. Two men and an elderly lady slowly sorted through mountains of knitwear with a stick. They said that they live nearby, and they periodically come here for bread for dogs. Someone supposedly eats it himself. But they are squeamish.

“Free secondhand,” one of them mutters. - These are soulful sneakers. New. Why was it thrown away? Well, give it to someone."

Nikolai hurried away from competitors. I follow him. Scary alone, scary.

"How are you here, aren't you scared?" I ask him.

“Yes, what will happen to me,” he argues. - That was the case, I was frightened to horror. I go and hear a woman's voice. Yelling, but everything is not in Russian. Think they kill? Or what is it? I run up, there are several people near her, they say, is a Tajik or an Uzbek woman giving birth. An ambulance was called for her, while she was driving, she gave birth to twins! Well, I didn’t come close, suddenly the children would die, I was afraid. No, they say they survived.

In general, he admitted, migrants, and even himself, are periodically expelled from here by the police. But illegal immigrants are deported home. And Kolya's house is near the landfill.

"And die quietly"

And then Nikolai admitted that he was most afraid of stepping on the needle of a drug addict here and "quietly die of AIDS."

I joined the trinity that collects bread, and left the territory with them. Everyone walking in front carried bags full of bags.

A garbage truck drove past us. His driver, Farid, said that all the fables about the miraculous finds in the landfill, in his opinion, are legends. “I do 4 trips per shift,” the man says. I collect garbage from the bins. Well, people threw away, rags and slops, am I really going to look at what is there?

But his colleague, Aleksey, who no longer works at the Gorecocenter, later said that the landfill is a dangerous place. Including for the homeless themselves, who rush into the mountain of garbage as soon as you bring it, trying to get ahead of each other. And here the main thing is not to crush them to death with the sides of the car. And he himself did not see, but he heard that not once or twice were corpses found here. Homeless or whom, do not know. And the latter lives here a dime a dozen. He personally knows dozens of houses, made of cardboard, carpets and boxes.

Garbage truck drivers are not as optimistic about finds among the garbage. Photo: AiF / Alexander Firsov

Fears and fear about the Chelyabinsk landfill are not in vain. Several years ago, on the territory of the Karabash landfill, three entrepreneurs practically enslaved 200 fellow countrymen. The men's passports were taken away and they were forced to work, sorting garbage. Later, the slaves admitted that their working day lasted from 5 am to sunset. For the slightest disobedience, they were severely beaten. Moreover, not only people leading an asocial lifestyle came across the trick of the slave owners. Someone was brought to a landfill and forced to work for food by force, taking away means of communication and documents. Evidence of the guilt of the slave owners later became their telephone conversations, intercepted by the police, and the testimony of witnesses.

We were lucky: the wind carried the smell of garbage in the other direction. A photo.