A Sign of the Times?

There is a karang-guni collection centre in the industrial park where I work. Well, calling it a “centre” is stretching it. It is set up at a corner of a t-junction, and all manner of paper, plastic and scrap metal sit on wooden pallets line the pavements.

As you can imagine, a bulk of the “sellers” are old people who pick up all manner of recyclables to sell for sustenance. When you see how old some of these people are, really, it really tugs at your heartstrings. But I do applaud them, for their tenacity.

They push bicycles / trolleys full of stuff gathered from who-knows-where and slowly make their way to the collection centre. The record height of one of these trolleys was 1 storey high, pushed along by an old man in a tattered wife-beater and worn slippers.

But lately, a new breed of “sellers” have emerged. They are usually in their 30s or 40s, young, fit and brutal. They have obtained their own “not so old” trolleys and usually go after the “higher value” items like scrap metal. I have seen metal gates, hand rails, and mountains of aluminium scrap on 1 single trolley. This new breed is predominantly mainland Chinese. They appear to be cooks employed in the central kitchens nearby, and prowl the industrial estate and the nearby private estates for scrap. I have seen several of them diving into the recycling bins placed outside our houses and taking things of value from it.

I guess there is no right or wrong here. And in times like these, survival of the fittest means all that is necessary needs to be done. However, I cannot help but wonder a) how would the old people survive in times of competition? b) is it right for them to raid our recycling bins? c) some of the stuff sold look so new that there was no way LTA / NEA / some dude would have thrown out. Who regulates whether this “scrap” was indeed stolen? d) how much are these Chinese nationals being paid? Is it reasonable to believe that they are not being paid enough and need to supplement their income by collecting scrap?