A towel draped over his head, Hamza Jabbari sets bags of plastic bottles onto a scale. He is among Tunisia's "barbechas", informal plastic recyclers whose increasing numbers reflect the country's economic -- and migratory -- woes.

The 40-something-year-old said he starts the day off at dawn, hunching over bins and hunting for plastic before the rubbish trucks and other plastic collectors come.

"It's the most accessible work in Tunisia when there are no job offers," Jabbari said, weighing a day's haul in Bhar Lazreg, a working-class neighbourhood north of the capital, Tunis.

The work is often gruelling, with a kilogramme of plastic bottles worth only 0.5 to 0.7 Tunisian dinar -- less than $0.25.

In Tunis, it's common to see women weighed down by bags of plastic bottles along the roadside, or men weaving through traffic with towering loads strapped to their motorcycles.

"Everyone does it," said Jabbari.

- 'Supplementary job' -

Hamza........

© Al Monitor