In Maputo, Mozambique, a garbage dump that spans more than 42 acres and has 50-foot-tall trash piles is only miles away from the regional airport.

These two places in the city—one, a connection to the rest of the globe, and the other a man-made wasteland—show just how conflicting modernization can be.

The dump, in a neighborhood of Maputo called Huléne, opened in 1968 and has since been a central—though destructive—aspect of the locals' life. It's nicknamed "Trash Land," and is a home to scavengers and garbage collectors who search through the rubble to find anything that could be traded for bread or milk.

Local Insight reports that the dump is supposed to close in 2014, but the city must first come up with the funds and means to build a landfill as a new site for the trash.

The photographer, Portugese journalist José Ferreira, said, "for many people there, it’s not and never was an option to be there...the Huléne trash is an increasingly outdated phenomenon, even for the context of economic crisis in which Mozambique is associated."

These are the photographs of the people and sights he saw on a walk through "Trash Land."

