To survive in a cold, harsh urban environment, the urban poor man in the photo spends his days hoping for the rain to cause the plastic waste dumped in Accra’s waterways to flow into the heavily polluted Korle Lagoon.

Risking injury, this brings the opportunity for him to get into the lagoon to collect some plastics to sell.

A significant chunk of the plastics ends up in the Gulf of Guinea, the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean.

The plastics chocked at various points in the lagoon are collected by urban poor men who depend on them to feed themselves and their families.

Gasping for breath, the man who’s around 5’8 tall held on tightly to his collected plastics in a sack even as he nearly submerged in the lagoon. He needed the plastics so badly.