ragpickers
Cloth scrap gatherers
Ragpickers are people who collect rags, scraps, and other discarded materials from streets or dumps to sell for reuse or recycling.
The term evokes 19th-century urban poverty, when the trade was common in industrial cities.
It now appears mostly in historical contexts or as a metaphor for scavenging through what others have thrown away: He sorted through the archives like a ragpicker searching for something of value.
Of a prim era
- DickensianGrimly poor, socially unjust
- Industrial RevolutionEra of mechanized production
- tenementsOvercrowded urban dwellings
- workhousesLabor-based relief institutions
mudlarks · street urchins · soot · cholera · poverty wages · London · social reform · child workers
Impoverished, crowded districts
- survivalRemaining alive against odds
- marginalizedPushed to society's edges
- destituteUtterly without means
- child laborMinors performing paid work
exploitation · subsistence · homelessness · shantytown · desperation · vulnerable · disenfranchised · hand-to-mouth
Creatures consuming dead matter
Arranging into sequence
- textilesWoven or knit materials
- paperPressed pulp for writing
- cardboardRigid paper for containers
- plasticsMoldable petroleum-based materials
metals · bottles · scrap · reusable · materials · salvage · resale · middlemen
Refuse collection and disposal
- sustainabilityCapacity to endure indefinitely
- pollution reductionDecreasing harmful environmental discharge
- environmental justiceFair sharing of ecological burdens
- cleanupRestoration of order
zero waste · ecological footprint · conservation · green economy
Victorian
Of a prim era
- DickensianGrimly poor, socially unjust
- Industrial RevolutionEra of mechanized production
- tenementsOvercrowded urban dwellings
workhouses · mudlarks · street urchins · soot · cholera · poverty wages · London · social reform · child workers · nineteenth century
slums
Impoverished, crowded districts
- survivalRemaining alive against odds
- marginalizedPushed to society's edges
- destituteUtterly without means
child labor · exploitation · subsistence · homelessness · shantytown · desperation · vulnerable · disenfranchised · hand-to-mouth · underprivileged
scavengers
Creatures consuming dead matter
sorting
Arranging into sequence
plastics · metals · bottles · scrap · reusable · materials · salvage · resale · middlemen · junkyards
waste management
Refuse collection and disposal
- sustainabilityCapacity to endure indefinitely
- pollution reductionDecreasing harmful environmental discharge
- environmental justiceFair sharing of ecological burdens
cleanup · zero waste · ecological footprint · conservation · green economy
- underclasspoor, pauper, peasant, homeless, serf
- Belle EpoqueMoulin Rouge, cancan, can-can, absinthe, Art Nouveau
ragpickerstycoons
Powerful business leaders
magnates · plutocrats · billionaires · industrialists · aristocrats
ragpickerswastrels
Habitual reckless spenders
spendthrifts · squanderers · profligates · disposers · litterbugs
ragpickersexecutives
Senior corporate officers
CEOs · financiers · sanitation workers · corporate officers · captains of industry