As competition to collect recyclable items hots up, some rag-and-bone men are reportedly stealing newspaper from bags supplied by CDCs

SOME karang guni men are resorting to petty thievery in the face of more aggressive door-to-door newspaper recycling drives by grassroots groups.

These rag-and-bone men, who eke out a living by buying and reselling old newspapers and other household items, are finding themselves squeezed out of job because of these drives.

Some have resorted to stealing newspapers packed in recycling bags supplied by these community organisations.

Since July 1999, four community development councils (CDCs) have teamed up with Transnational Recycling Industries to distribute coloured recycling bags to housing estates.

Residents, many of whom prefer to give the newspapers to the recycling programmes rather than earn the paltry sum these rag-and-bone men pay them, can then dispose their recyclable items for Transnational to collect.

Part of the money from the sale of the recyclable items goes to charities, like the Society for the Physically Disabled, or to fund programmes organised by the CDCs.

But soon after these programmes started, karang guni men were caught taking some of those bags in the morning, say the programme organisers.

‘‘The karang guni men take the bags from outside people’s houses before Transnational collectors could pick them up, or the bags get hijacked when the collectors take them down from the flats and stack them at the void deck," said Miss Teoh Zsin Woon, general manager of Marine Parade CDC, which launched its recycling drive last November.

So far, fewer than 10 karang guni men have been caught red-handed taking the bags, said Transnational’s resource manager, Mr Cheah Pin Thong.

"These are both locals and Chinese nationals," he said.

"There was one person I encountered who was a local in his 30s or early 40s. I told him the bags were for the programme and that he shouldn’t take them.

"He said ‘Sorry’."

In one case, after a karang guni man was repeatedly caught taking the bags, Transnational made a police report.

But karang guni men like Mr Ng Ah Ng, 50, said: "It’s not right to take the bags, but it might be understandable why some people are desperate enough to do it."

Competition to collect recyclab1e items has increased over the last year, with the CDCs and waste disposal companies like Semac introducing door-door collections for recyclable items like paper products, old clothes, shoes and bags, glass and plastic bottles, pots and pans, and old electrical appliances.

Where does that leave the rag-and-bone man, who often works alone, asked a spokesman for Tai Hing Pte Ltd, a paper merchant, which collects paper from both big recyclers and the karang guni men.

"They were the ones going door to door all this while and now their daily collection has been directly affected," she said.

"But residents will probably not sympathise with them unless these karang guni men are old and have no other job."

Mr Cheah said that Transnational has collected just 10,000 tonnes of paper since it teamed up with the CDCs in 1999.

This is out of a total of 964,100 tonnes produced in that year. Over 500,000 tonnes were just thrown away.

"There’s still a lot of paper out there. I don’t see any threat to them unless they want to take the easy way out," he said.

Transnational has even tried offering jobs to some of these independent collectors, but it was turned down.

Mr Frankie Ong, 35, who has been in the rag-and-bone trade for 10 years, said: "Many of us prefer to be our own boss. If we’re sick or it’s raining, we might not go out. When you work for a big company, there are all sorts of rules.’

To help organise karang guni men so they will not have to resort to stealing, Tai Hing has suggested that the company sponsor recycling bags that karang guni men can leave at the front door of homes, just like the grassroots organisations.

"These men tend to trust more than the grassroots organisations. Maybe we can organise them and pa~ them to collect from an are to help them survive," it spokesman said.

-By Josephine James

Source : The Straits Times, Jun 26, 2001

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