Depends on the environment, but don't get too 'eco-friendly' else:
Unemployed 53-year-old Singaporean wtih NUS engineering honours degree turns to scavenging trash to feed his family
Unemployed NUS graduate decides to become “Karung guni” man Editorial TR EMERITUS
An engineer who was retrenched in 2007 had to resort to scavenging for rubbish to make a living and support his family of 7.
53-year-old Mr Koh is an engineering graduate from
NUS with honours. After working for some years, he finally landed himself a top job in a big company in 1993. Subsequently, he worked there for the next 14 years till 2007 when he was laid off. Although the company wrote him a good testimonial, it wasn’t easy for him to find another job. After he was laid off, there was a change in his outlook and he began to centre his life around his family more than his work.
He has 4 daughters, ages from 5 to 9. His mother lives with him. Together with his wife and himself, he has to support a family of 7. So, why did Mr Koh decide to get into rag and bone (“karung guni”) business after he was laid off? As jobs were hard to come by especially for people at his age, he said that he wanted to get into eco-friendly business.
“Some of the thrown-away electrical appliances only have minor problems. It’s a waste to see them being thrown away. After I repair them and clean them up, they are as good as new.”
In fact, the fridge, kettle, fan, etc in his house were all salvaged from the rubbish dumps. He has been picking rubbish for the last 3 years. Every morning, he will get up before the sun is up. Wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts, he will be the first to go to the dump sites to look for good items to pick.
“I start work at 5am every morning. I will go to the rubbish chutes and
HDB corridors to look for discarded items. I have to often endure cold stares from some of the residents.”
He recounted that sometimes, some people who saw him pushing a cart of discarded items would immediately cover their noses and avoid him. Others would throw sarcastic remarks at him.
“They thought I’m an illiterate who goes around picking disused items. I’m a university graduate!”
As to how much Mr Koh is earning from his rag and bone trade, he declined to say. He only said that he makes enough to support his family.
Before Mr Koh was retrenched, he disclosed that he was making $8,000 a month with bonus up to 5 months. He said that few months before he was being laid off, he whistle-blew on certain procedures in the company for being not proper. He felt that this might be the reason he was laid off.
“On the day I was laid off, it was raining and only 1 person from the company came out to see me off. It was pretty gloomy.”
Mr Koh recounted another incident. On one of the mornings, he was pushing his cart of loaded “junks” in a
HDB estate at Toh Guan Rd. He stepped away to get his bike for a moment. When he returned, the whole cart and “junks” disappeared. At the time, there was a Bangla cleaner around. Mr Koh saw the Bangla cleaner came out from the utility room. The Bangla denied seeing his cart. When Mr Koh wanted to enter the utility room to check, the Bangla told him there was no key. So, Mr Koh had no choice but to call the police. The police came and asked to see the supervisor. The supervisor came and opened the door to the utility room. Mr Koh’s “missing” cart together with the items were found inside the room.
The supervisor after questioning the Bangla cleaner, took out $100 and gave it to Mr Koh, hoping that Mr Koh would let things rest. Mr Koh said, “After being busy for one whole morning, I was insulted by this. I feel very frustrated.”
