Business owner Biruk Shimeles, 31, paints charcoal stoves made with recycled metal objects at the historical Merkato district of Addis Ababa on October 1, 2024. 'Korale' is a made-up word in Amharic that is used for the thousands of collectors, almost all men, who hunt out everything from used jerry cans and electrical equipment to shoes, shovels and any other unwanted bric-a-brac. These objects are then either restored, stripped for spare parts, or transformed into something new. Addis Ababa produces some 400,000 tonnes of waste annually, according to 2020 figures from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), of which only 70 percent is picked up by the official waste management system. (Photo by Michele Spatari / AFP) (Photo by MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images)