A United Nations recycling project aimed at hiring scavengers to sift through debris left from the tsunami and recycle everything from steel to tree roots began on Wednesday in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

The Jakarta Post reports that workers cleared an area where loads of rubble will be sorted from next week by about 100 tsunami scavengers who have been picking through the rubble for scrap. The rubbish will then be recycled, used to rebuild homes or broken down into mulch that can be used as compost. "We‘‘re going to pay them to do what they‘‘re already doing," said Tim Walsh, U.N. Development Program waste management adviser. He said workers would be paid about Rp 30,000 rupiah (US$3.30) a day as part of the U.N. plan to employ up to 30,000 tsunami survivors to help with the massive cleanup. Heavy machinery will also be used to make the operation safer and more efficient.

Bricks and wood that survived the tsunami will be collected and placed in piles for people to use in the rebuilding process, while slabs of concrete will be broken up and used for reconstruction or as fill. The project is expected to expand to other areas of the province of 4.1 million people where similar sorting facilities will be established. Walsh estimated the waste generated by the tsunami in Banda Aceh alone would equal a pile about three football fields long, three football fields wide and three stories high. "It‘‘s equivalent to the amount of rubbish a city the size of Banda Aceh would generate in 20 years," he said.

Aluminum, steel, copper and plastic are all being recycled