AP PHOTOS: 'These streets are ours': The hidden workforce that scours Istanbul's garbage
ISTANBUL (AP) — The clang of makeshift carts echoes through winding alleys in one of Istanbul 's oldest neighborhoods as a hidden workforce scours the streets looking for recyclable paper, cardboard and plastic.
Their ranks have grown in recent years as Turkey’s cost of living surged, pushing thousands of men, women and even children to look for alternative income options to get by.
The narrow cobblestone lanes of Eminonu, an area packed with bazaars and crowded restaurants, are the collectors' main hunting grounds, where they blend into Istanbul’s bustle.
Ergin Dogan, 29, says he has pulled his rickety cart through these streets since he was a boy. He remembers how his father struggled to make ends meet in their hometown of Nigde in central Turkey before the two came to Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, to try their luck here.
But it hasn't been easy.
“I left school at 13," Dogan said. “We sleep in dilapidated buildings near Suleymaniye Mosque, with dirty blankets and no real shower.”
They work from early morning till late at night. When a metal bar broke on Dogan's cart on one of his garbage runs, he stopped only briefly to duct tape it.
In the evening, his father brings his truck around and they load up the days’ haul of paper and plastic from Dogan and others in the area to sell to recycling facilities. After being processed, it will be used in industrial applications or reused as carton and paper.
Late at night, thieves sometimes stop them on the streets, asking for money.
“If we refuse, they threaten us,” Dogan says. "We work more than 12 hours, sometimes 17 (a day). If we take a day off, we go hungry.”
Dogan's cousin, 28-year-old Ergun Dogan, Ergun's younger brother Mehmet Dogan, 16, and...