A karung guni in modern Singapore

As little kids in Singapore, one of the creative “threats” our parents often used to scare us into obedience is how “the karung guni man will trade you away for a few dollars if you don’t behave!” Now imagine the fear the young and gullible children would feel whenever the karung guni man came a-knockin’ in the morning, armed with his blaring horn of doom:

"Karung guni, poh zhua gu sa kor, pai leh-lio, dian si ki..." ("Rag and bone, newspapers and old clothes, spoilt radios, televisions" in Singlish and Hokkien) 

A common sight in the heartlands in the past, the karung guniman would go door to door to buy unwanted items from residents and later sell them to secondhand dealers or recycling companies. Today, with the emergence of localized recycling options and waste facilities, is the karung guni’s trade past its time and prime?

Modern waste management
Heartland dwellers who have been routinely trading preloved items with the friendly neighbourhood karung guni man may be disheartened to see their business and numbers dwindle. 

Back in the 1960s, several strategically placed landfills around the island were more than enough to handle the country’s solid waste. By the 1970s, Singapore’s booming population and consequently, mounting waste prompted the government to intervene in waste management.

The result was the adoption of an integrated solid waste management system, which ensures that unrecycled waste is collected and safely disposed of at waste-to-energy incineration plants or at the offshore sanitary landfill. 

Here’s how solid waste disposal is carried out in Singapore today: About 8,000 tonnes of solid waste – a six-fold increase from the 1960s – are produced every day by residential, commercial and retail establishments. These are collected by private companies such as SembWaste, Veolia ES, Colex and 800 Super, and later divided into three piles. The first pile, which refers to the non-incinerable waste (3%), goes to the Semakau Landfill off the coast of Singapore. Next, the incinerable waste (37%) is distributed among the four incineration plants to be converted into energy. Lastly, the rest of the waste (60%) is recycled and put back into factories and industries for reuse. (Note: Figures are correct as of 2012)

The Tuas South Incineration Plant, for example, is the largest of four incineration plants in Singapore. According to a 2013 article by the Jakarta Post, 80% of the energy produced in this plant will be sold while the other 20% will be kept to meet the needs of the plant. Combined, all four incineration plants in Singapore generate some 2,688 MWh of electricity per day.

A personal touch
With the introduction of more efficient waste management methods (that generate electricity, to boot), where does this leave the karung guni men? 

Mr Lee, as he prefers to be known, is a 57-year-old karung guni man who has been in the trade for nearly 30 years. “At the height of the business throughout the 90s, we collected everything and had good money,” says Mr Lee as he loaded bundles of old newspapers onto the cart on the seventh floor of a Loyang-Pasir Ris HDB. “Nowadays, people don’t want [to sell] paper anymore because they don’t sell for a lot. A few cents here and there is not worth the effort.” Instead, karung gunis much prefer old computers, branded stereo systems, television sets and even refrigerators. 

While many have left the trade, Mr Lee soldiers on. He still collects old electronics, newspapers, textbooks and magazines. “Money is money,” Mr Lee said as he finished the last knot. “Can take, just take.” 

Mrs Tay is one of the few residents in the area who still trades with the karung guni man from time to time. She usually accumulates a small hill of newspapers piled up outside her house at the end of the month. “I’ve been staying here for 20 years, and I’ve known Mr Lee for some time now,” she explained. “It’s no trouble for me [to trade the papers] anyway, so I don’t mind.” 

Each time they trade, the two would also chat about the going-ons in the neighbourhood, as you would expect between two old friends. Mrs Tay calls it the “personal touch”, something you don’t get when the garbage truck comes along. 

As Mr Lee and his assistant loaded the day’s collection onto the back of his tightly packed van, a garbage truck was just about to leave the neighbourhood rubbish collection point. Compared to that, Mr Lee’s work looked more like a small, backyard operation. Yet he remains optimistic about the overwhelming odds. “They do their thing, I do my thing,” Mr Lee said. Maybe it’s all about finding a sweet spot for coexistence. 

Finding common grounds 
At the offshore Semakau Landfill, currently the only landfill in Singapore, special care was put into the design and operations to make sure that the site is clean, free of smell and scenic. With a mangrove forest on the eastern part of the offshore island and a burgeoning coral reef beneath its coastal waves, it seems like nature has found common grounds with the ashes of the incinerated solid waste buried below.

“I think, at this point, being a karung guni man is a culture. [The practice of waste disposal] was called ‘karung guni’ last time; now it goes by ‘recycle’. It’s just a different name for the same thing,” Mr Lee commented. “As long as we continue to go from door to door, this profession will continue to exist.” 

Wei Lien Chin

*The writer blogs at http://www.goingplacessingapore.sg/project/2014/waste-management.aspx