Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rms2279]

. . .

[optik404]

they collect them and recycle them for money

[Radius]

its only a hobby old men get after they retire.

[jrock]

They meet up with guys who collect couch cushions and together they built amazing forts

[sheriffadam]

You never picked up a piece of cardboard of the street?

Man its like crack, once you pop you just can't stop! Pity there cardboard addled minds...

[young_clinton]

If you're old and poor in Korea with no family there is no social security. They collect it to survive. They can make something in the neighborhood of $14 US a day collecting it. That's my understanding.

[rms2279]

. . .

[Kurtz]

They serve the purpose of providing a stark reminder of what life might have in store for you if you don't play your cards correctly; "oh, I'll never end up like that you say" well perhaps you just might.

[interestedinhanguk]

no pension/retirement fund/kids to take care of them.

[Died By Bear]

Some of them live underneath bridge networks - saw them once when I took a shortcut and went under the bridges (gechun) think chung-gyechung where all the people walk *they turned that one into a park* but there are many others that haven't been turned into parks.


What always broke my heart is to see 70 year old women pulling the big carts with their stuff loaded on it. Right in the middle of the streets.



Then there was the story (probably true) about the very rich family that was killed on that plane that crashed in Guam about ten years ago(?) and one of the survivors saw to it that one of the brothers (who was estranged from rich brother) never saw a dime of the inheritance. Don't remember the full story though, but the brother was one of these people living under a bridge and collecting scraps to eke out a living.

[Hyeon Een]

I had a student a couple of years ago at my uni who was an 11th year senior. It wasn't because he was a lazy guy, it was because he was poor and had no money for tuition.

He worked in Lotteria to fund his education. Anyway, apart from working in Lotteria, he also had a part time job being a cardboard man. I've never seen a young one, but he was a young cardboard/paper guy. He kind of cheated though; he got most of his cardboard from Lotteria boxes where he worked. I don't remember the exact figure, but I think he earned around 15,000won a week from taking the Lotteria boxes to the recycling center. For a guy as poor as he was, this was make or break money. I hope he's gone onto something better than Lotteria since he graduated.

Side note: When I'm driving my car, and some 100 year old woman is dragging a cart stacked up to the nearest skyscraper with trash in my lane, I get pissed off.

[fermentation]

I don't really give them too much thought except when they stroll into moving traffic and drop their boxes in the middle of the street. That pisses off a lot of drivers.

[toadkillerdog]

Not all of them are poor. Quite a few of the elderly collect recyclable stuff to add income to their families. They want to contribute to the family but are unable to get part-time work.

[lubastowiezc]

[Louis VI]

I asked my middle school class about it when we were discussing recycling and they said the cardboard collectors make about 2 million won a month! I laughed but didn't tell them why.