Call to recognise plight of Hong Kong’s ‘cardboard grannies’, who have no homes, savings or family
Recent case of elderly woman arrested over unlicensed selling has shed light on a group that has slipped through the cracks in society
Sister Wong, a cardboard seller in Hong Kong, is 65 years old, with no home, savings, or support from her two adult children. Besides a pension of about HK$3,000, the former civil servant earns less than HK$1,000 every month from reselling cardboard, hovering around the city’s poverty line of HK$3,800 a month.
Wong is among an estimated group of 5,000 “cardboard grannies”, who collect and sell waste boxes in the city, a large proportion of them based in Sham Shui Po, one of the poorest districts in Hong Kong.
Under existing laws, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department may prosecute Wong and her peers for blocking public streets, or hawking without a licence.
The case brought to light a social issue that appears to be widespread. Another elderly woman from Sham Shui Po, surnamed Fok, 67, was once brought to court and fined HK$400, or the amount she could expect to earn selling 800kg of cardboard.
Social workers and academics have suggested integrating cardboard sellers with the recycling industry so that they can have a normal job earning proper wages and, more than that, their dignity.
There have also been calls for the government to actively promote employment for the elderly.