Your Voice: The struggles of Hong Kong’s cardboard collectors, importance of spending time with yourself (long letters)

In Hong Kong, it is common to see cardboard collectors pushing around large trolleys filled with cardboard. Although most people walk past them, they have many struggles worth knowing more about.

According to a report by concern group Waste Picker in 2018, more than 70 per cent of recorded waste pickers are aged between 60 and 79. Over 80 per cent of those are women. Their average monthly income is HK$716.

Hong Kong is known as one of the most expensive cities in the world. These underpaid elderly workers strive all day to gather as much cardboard as possible to sell to small recycling shops.

Eric Swinton, the founder of V Cycle, a non-profit providing recycling solutions, told Hive Life magazine that waste pickers who sell their cardboard to recycling shops in Wan Chai receive only HK$0.30 per kilogram.

V Cycle has several initiatives to improve the conditions of these informal workers.

For example, Swinton developed an initiative known as the Ten Tonne Challenge. He set a goal of collecting ten tonnes of plastic bottles in six months. They created jobs for waste collectors to sort the plastics instead of picking them up in unsafe and congested conditions.

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V Cycle then sent the collected bottles to Taiwan to be converted into yarn. The yarn was later made into tote bags and other accessories.

The cardboard collectors were ultimately paid through the money from selling these items, and Swinton hoped “to help more elderly cardboard grannies by refurbishing their homes”.

However, non-profit organisations can only help a few workers, while others face harsh situations. Beyond the low pay, they also undergo several physical challenges during collection.

Au Fung-lan, a 71-year-old cardboard collector interviewed by the Hong Kong Free Press, had been in two car accidents and still works with injured shoulders and feet in congested areas of the city.

Furthermore, Au noted that people walking past them “look down on us”, referring to the rest of the cardboard community.

Wong Yuet-han, another cardboard collector in Sheung Shui, refuses to receive any government assistance, noting “I still have some energy so I can help myself.”

As many of these workers highlight the need to hold their independence and contribute to society, solutions to help them should respect the seniors’ dignity by allowing them autonomy.

Adrienne Fung, 18, Milton Academy

This summer, I spent a lot of time by myself. I visited new places, old places, and everything in between – parks, shops, cafes and the like.

On a few occasions, I accidentally left my phone at home. So, with no gadget to entertain myself with, I started looking around me.

I saw all kinds of people – a parent holding what looked like 50 shopping bags, an elderly lady clutching an ice cream and more than a few office workers spilling coffee on themselves.

But more than anything else, I saw people on their phones.

One teenager, busy tapping away, was nearly run over by a taxi driver as she crossed the street. Nobody noticed. They were all doing the same thing as she was.

At one restaurant, I observed a couple sitting across from each other. They passed their entire hour-long lunch without saying a word to each other – one was watching a movie, and the other was scrolling through Instagram.

I’ve started to worry if we’re forgetting how to be real people like those before us who interacted with the physical world around them.

If that girl was hit by a car, how many people would stop to help? How many would start filming? Would anyone even notice anything at all? Of course, our devices are tempting. I’ll be the first to admit that my screen time can reach shameful numbers. Sometimes, what’s online can feel like a much-needed break from reality.

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But in an era where perfect images of other people’s lives are instantly available for us to consume and envy, it’s even more critical that we maintain our connections to life – real life, not whatever our phones decide we need to see.

As Shakespeare wrote, if all the world is a stage, we must take the time to see it from the audience’s perspective.

Otherwise, we will never understand how we all factor into the larger picture. So whenever I find myself at a restaurant or on the subway, caught in the thrall of my Instagram Explore page, I remind myself to look up. It would help if you tried it sometime – maybe you’ll be surprised at what you find.

Please don’t stare; people-watching doesn’t have to be as active as its name suggests. It doesn’t involve being nosy or bugging your eyes out at others thinking they won’t notice you.

It’s about observance. It’s about learning to see yourself in others, in laughter, tears, and unlucky coffee spills. Ultimately, people-watching is just a way of reminding ourselves that we, like everyone else, are human.