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Despite the huge wealth in Hong Kong, many elderly residents struggle. In a 2024 report, the charity Oxfam Hong Kong estimated that 580,000 elderly people in the city were living in poverty. The government offers elderly citizens a small monthly allowance but some need and choose to earn more to cover living costs in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Lai’s earnings have halved in the past year. She says recycling companies used to pay HK$0.6 ($0.078) per kilogram, the minimum recommended by the government, but now offer only HK$0.3 ($0.038). Worse still, sometimes she gets nothing when strangers or government officers throw away her collected items, mistaking them for garbage blocking the roads.
Chan says her children are in Canada.
Catherine Phillips/CNN
Chan is being told by a recycling station she is visiting that it has stopped accepting cardboard temporarily due to a change of policy.
Catherine Phillips/CNN
The recycling firm sets up a satellite station in Hong Kong's San Wan Ho district to make it easier for elderly scavengers to sell their items.
Catherine Phillips/CNN
A bad day: After pushing her trolley from one district to another one afternoon, Chan Ngai-kan, 95, found out the recycling outpost she usually goes to was no longer accepting cardboard. That day, she ended up disposing of her haul at a rubbish station nearby, walking away without any money. It’s a huge blow, she tells CNN.
Lai’s earnings have halved in the past year. She says recycling companies used to pay HK$0.6 ($0.078) per kilogram, the minimum recommended by the government, but now offer only HK$0.3 ($0.038). Worse still, sometimes she gets nothing when strangers or government officers throw away her collected items, mistaking them for garbage blocking the roads.
Chan says her children are in Canada.
Catherine Phillips/CNN
Chan is being told by a recycling station she is visiting that it has stopped accepting cardboard temporarily due to a change of policy.
Catherine Phillips/CNN
The recycling firm sets up a satellite station in Hong Kong's San Wan Ho district to make it easier for elderly scavengers to sell their items.
Catherine Phillips/CNN
A bad day: After pushing her trolley from one district to another one afternoon, Chan Ngai-kan, 95, found out the recycling outpost she usually goes to was no longer accepting cardboard. That day, she ended up disposing of her haul at a rubbish station nearby, walking away without any money. It’s a huge blow, she tells CNN.
