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

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 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)

A wave carrying plastic waste and other rubbish washes up on a beach in Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand on January 19, 2021. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

This picture taken on June 3, 2023 shows wild elephants eating rubbish mixed with plastic waste at a dump in the eastern district of Ampara. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

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)