Two elderly cardboard collectors who had their collection point at Chinatown shutdown have now been relocated to a much nearer one by People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) Lily Neo.
Initially, when their cardboard collection point at Chinatown was closed down, two elderly ladies who collect and sell cardboard for a living spoke about how much harder their jobs had become. They had to walk up to 30 minutes more, pushing their heavy trollies to another collection point.
“Sometimes I push my trolley and collect cardboard at the same time. Sometimes my cart falls over and I have to get it back up again”, Mdm Lim Ah Lian explained. She also said that if she walked at a quicker pace, she could reach the new collection point in 20 minutes, but if she was slow and collected cardboard along the way, it would take her 30 minutes to reach the new collection point.
Mdm Lai Sau Choo, who looked to be slightly older than Mdm Lim said, “You can’t just jay-walk you have to look for a traffic-light. It’s a busy cross-junction. No choice. I have to push my trolley slowly”.
The two women also said that in terms of profitability, “The boss at the new collection point pays (them) less”.
The boss at the previous collection point used to pay the women six cents per kilogram of cardboard. Now at the new collection point however, the women only get paid five cents per kilogram. They also only get 60 cents for every 60 drink cans, but the at the previous location the boss would give them 70 cents per 60 cans.
A non-profit organization Happy People Helping People (HPHP) reached out to MP Lily Neo, who came through, earning high praise from netizens and from the elderly women.
In a Facebook post, the organization thanked the MP and wrote, “A representative of MP Lily Neo has replied! They have relocated the cardboard collection point for Banda St to a new location and it’s even nearer to Blk 5 Banda Street”. /TISG
Follow Google News
Join us on WhatsApp
Follow us on Telegram