The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ragpicker \Rag"pick`er\ (r[a^]g"p[i^]k`[~e]r), n. One who gets a living by picking up rags and refuse things in the streets.
Wiktionary
alt. A person who scavenges rags and other refuse for a living n. A person who scavenges rags and other refuse for a living
WordNet
n. an unskilled person who picks up rags from trash cans and public dumps as a means of livelihood
Wikipedia
A Rag-picker, or Chiffonnier, is term for someone who makes a living by rummaging through refuse in the streets to collect material for salvage. Scraps of cloth and paper could be turned into cardboard, broken glass could be melted down and reused, and even dead cats and dogs could be skinned to make clothes.
The rag-pickers in 19th and early 20th Century did not recycle the materials themselves; they would simply collect whatever they could find and turn it over to a "master rag-picker" (usually a former rag-picker) who would, in turn, sell it—generally by weight—to wealthy investors with the means to convert the materials into something more profitable.
Although it was solely a job for the lowest of the working classes, rag-picking was considered an honest occupation, more on the level of street sweeper than of a beggar. In Paris, for instance, rag-pickers were regulated by law: their operations were restricted to certain times of night, and they were required to return any unusually valuable items to the owner or to the authorities. When Eugène Poubelle introduced the garbage can in 1884, he was criticized in the French newspapers for meddling with the rag-pickers' livelihoods. Modern sanitation and recycling programs ultimately caused the profession to decline, though it did not disappear entirely; rag and bone men are not uncommon in England today.
Rag-picking is still widespread in Third World countries today, such as in Mumbai, India, where it offers the poorest in society around the rubbish and recycling areas a chance to earn a hand-to-mouth supply of money. In 2015, the Environment Minister of India declared a national award to recognise the service rendered by rag-pickers. The award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, is for three best rag pickers and three associations involved in innovation of best practices.
Usage examples of "ragpicker".
The elf held her hand up flat, moved it in a circle, and the ragpicker disappeared like steaming breath wiped from a cold window pane.
Lord of Many Towers was reputed to discern truth from lies when spoken before him, the ragpicker jerked on the rope about his neck and fell upon his knees, giving forth that wail with which the honest meet with misfortune.
Every streetsweeper and ragpicker was aware that the Tower was divided against itself, but even so, the name still carried weight, and an image of strength that never failed.
Out on the sand, an old ragpicker has built a small fire from sticks and torn towels and is huddling by it, settled in for the night.
Filthy as outhouse rats, looking the sorriest of ragpickers, men and women stripped to sop off grime and blood, and modesty be damned.
Two of the ragpickers had a couple of tourists pinned against a restaurant window and were ready to reach into their pockets for buy-off money.
Them other ragpickers are always moochin in on my territory when they think I’m stayin home.
Get down, Dor’thy—if you want to know how us ragpickers make a livin, you gotta get in and sweat and cuss with us.
He was much younger than I had expected, a boy of about fifteen, very round and blotchy in appearance, secret eyes peering out of the baby fat, and he had the slightly retarded look of incipient geniusthat crowlike scratchy cunning of the city's ragpickers and bottle-savers, those evolutionary masters of survival.