A Cambodian girl goes through the garbage dump looking for things to recycle in order to survive July 26, 2003 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Rampant corruption in this impoverished country has lead to extreme poverty with many Cambodians living below the poverty line. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be around 6.5 million in 2012. A third (33%) of the country's population lives below the international poverty line which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day.

A girl sits on a pile of rubbish at landfill site on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen November 16, 2016. (Photo by Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters)

A girl plays with pigeons in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on February 24, 2023. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

A swan sits on her eggs on nest made of rubbish found in the Danube river in Belgrade, Serbia on Monday, May 10, 2022. (Photo by Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo)

Environmental activist Rob Greenfield walks around Beverly Hills, California on May 16, 2022 wearing a suit filled with every piece of trash he has generated living and consuming like a typical American for one month to raise awareness about how much garbage just one person generates. (Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP Photo)

A vendor holds a fried spider along a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, April 10, 2017. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

Boy rests on bags of recyclable waste at a rubbish dump outside Yemen's Red Sea port city of Houdieda January 19, 2016. (Photo by Abduljabbar Zeyad/Reuters)