In a case that makes you question our city’s priorities, plainclothes government officials this week fined a 63-year-old scavenger HK$1,500 for dumping litter after she moved 15 meters away from a bag of trash she was in the process of hauling.
Surnamed Lan, the woman was approached by two Food and Environmental Hygiene Department offices about 8pm on Monday as she collected cardboard and styrofoam from shops in Java Road, North Point — her nightly route.
Here’s what went down, according a Facebook group which helps scavengers — also known as cardboard grannies — with their problems.
Lan — who collects cardboard and also sorts out trash from recyclables — had left one of the bags of rubbish on the floor as she returned to her trolley about 15m away, which, she noted, could only hold so much.
Almost immediately, the FEHD officers approach and demanded her identity card.
Though she tried to explain what she was doing, she said the officers refused to listen and told her to “tell the judge” in court.
They then proceeded to call the police as Lan refused to show her identity card. She was then issued a penalty notice.
“I have been collecting and sorting out the trash for years, why am I accused of littering?” Lan said, according to the administrator of the Facebook group, surnamed Chui.
Criticizing officers for targeting the “old and powerless,” Lan noted that many people improperly dispose of garbage in the general vicinity of rubbish bins without being punished for it.
On the Facebook page, Chiu posted the response from the FEHD about the case.
Despite the tough lot faced by all the cities scavengers, it said officers had no room for discretion as “everyone is equal before the law.”
“There is no regulation allowing an officer to pardon a scavenger or the elderly. The FEHD officers will prosecute anyone who violates the law depending on the evidence and actual situation,” it reads.
