It’s a common sight in South Africa: young people pushing shopping carts along the sides of busy roads, picking up plastic and paper as many turn to recycling for income, according to a report in eNCA.

An estimated one in four South Africans is unemployed — many of them, youth — forcing unsuccessful job hunters to seek alternate sources of income.

Young people are getting into the recycling business, eNCA reports.

Some of the drivers in cities like Johannesburg consider the shopping carts dangerous and a nuisance on the roads, the report said.

Few consider the lives of the people who push them.

Retlaremang Koose starts work at 5 a.m. taking his shopping cart through Johannesburg neighbourhoods. Most of his day is spent going through people’s trash.

He’s been doing it for 13 years and with the proceeds, feeds his family and even supports other relatives.

He worked in construction before this job, but told eNCA he earns more recycling. “I get money quickly without anyone  treating me badly or swindle me out of my money,” he said.

Clive Thuli opened a recycling company, C-J-T Multi Business, after being laid off from a packaging company where he’d worked for 14 years.

“We normally tell people that ‘your dirt is our money,'” he told eNCA. “We lost a lot of dignity…because we go digging bins and look for stuff and at first it was a bit complex…but now it has become natural,” Thuli said.

South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. Though the ruling African National Congress said it has made job creation a priority, the unemployment rate has been more than 20 percent for more than a decade, eNCA reports.