There are about 2,900 "cardboard grannies" in Hong Kong who continuously surge the streets to find cardboards and other useful wastes to earn a few dollars. Although these elders help the country's effort to recycle and collect garbage, it looks like their works are not even recognize.
According to the South China Morning Post, some elders collect cardboards to have some money to sustain their daily needs. Even though some of them don't complain about their works, they all have a hard time to find a more decent job.
Vegetable and meat sellers in Che Fong Street usually throw their used cardboard, boxes, foam waste, and other trash on the pavement, which the cardboard grannies pick. They then bring it to a nearby recycling plant and turn it into money.
So the country's lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick believes they are a significant part of the city's "waste collection efforts." However, it seems like people don't honor their work. "It's like they are living in the cracks of society," he said.
Cardboard grannies have about 193 tons of cardboard and waste paper to collect each day in Hong Kong. But with the elders' ailing physical abilities, the quantity of the garbage they have to pick is too much for them to take. So the rubbish piles up on the street.
Cardboard grannies also encounter some serious problems. An elderly woman got fined by HK$1,500 (US$191) for littering after she left a bag of rubbish in July. A garbage collector also got penalized for HK$1 per piece of waste for selling cardboard without a license.
But as these cases caused outrage and sympathy from the public, the government was urged to drop the charges. Hong Kong School of Poverty Caring ministry officer Tang Wing-him explained although Hongkongers have a law to follow, the issue just showed how people disrespect the works the cardboard grannies do.
"The government regards what the cardboard collectors do as picking up rubbish, which they deem unlawful. Consequently, there is little to no protection in terms of health and safety for them," he said, via The Guardian.
The administration doesn't see these grannies as official members of the country's recycling industry. Wing revealed he is working hard to make their works and efforts be recognized, so they could receive proper compensation, protection, and dignity.
Chu, on the other hand, wanted the government to give the cardboard grannies the right place to store and organized their collected wastes. He believed their efforts should be included in the government waste collection and recycling works by government's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and Environmental Protection Department.
