Women use iron bars, umbrella in fight over cardboard boxes, police say
The fight comes a week after Beijing agreed to let Hong Kong export waste to the mainland again, raising hopes of a price increase for recyclables
Two women were arrested on Thursday for fighting over cardboard boxes with iron bars and an umbrella in the street in Cheung Sha Wan, police said.
In a possible sign that recycling prices in Hong Kong may be on the rise again, the women – both older than 60 – began arguing over the used cardboard boxes outside a block of flats on Un Chau Street at about 3.45am, officers said.
One of the women, 62, was accused of beating the other, 73, with two iron bars. The older woman fought back with an umbrella. The two Hongkongers both suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital for treatment.
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The two women were being held for questioning and had not been charged.
A police spokeswoman said it seemed “the younger woman used two iron bars to beat the older woman, who picked up an umbrella and fought back.”
Police were called to the scene by a man who witnessed the fight, she said.
The fight was over by the time officers arrived.
Police said the 62-year-old woman injured her elbow and complained of chest pain. The other woman injured her arm.
The price of recycled cardboard bottomed out in the middle of September at HK$0.50 per kg when the city’s waste paper exporters launched a three-day strike, refusing to buy waste paper and used cardboard boxes from local collectors.
The industrial action was in response to a policy shift in Beijing, which aimed to ban imports of 24 types of “foreign rubbish” by the end of the year.
About 1,000 recycling plants across the mainland failed to get a permit to bring in foreign waste, causing massive pile-ups of waste in Hong Kong.
The price for cardboard was expected to recover gradually to the normal level of about 80 cents per kg, with export prices to increase from HK$800 per tonne to HK$1,200, Jacky Lau Yiu-shing, director of the Recycle Materials and Re-Production Business General Association, said last week.
