A Chinese social media blogger shares how one can earn cash through trash in a wealthy residential area in Hong Kong. - SCREENGRAB FROM XIAOHONGSHU
HONG KONG (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Picking up trash to earn cash has never been easier when one does it in a wealthy neighbourhood, according to a viral video by a Chinese blogger.
The minute-long video was posted on May 25 on China’s social media platform Xiaohongshu, or “Little Red Book”, under the title “Picking up money in a wealthy area of Hong Kong, so easy!”
The blogger, who goes by the handle jin jin chao o cai, has more than 2,700 followers on the platform. He shares mainly life hacks, cheap deals and funny anecdotes about life.
His profile shows that he is 32 years old and lives in Shenzhen, a city in southern China’s Guangdong province.
In the video, he travels to Clear Water Bay in Hong Kong’s New Territories and says it is not the fancy villas he is going there for, but the rubbish dumps there, reported the South China Morning Post.
He then enters one such dump and finds a lot of “cashable” rubbish, including baby car seats, DVDs and wooden DVD holders.
He estimated that the trash he came across that day could be sold for HK$1,500 (S$258).
The video has since received more than 2,400 likes and 70 comments on Xiaohongshu.
One person asked: “Did you come all the way to Hong Kong just to pick up rubbish?”
In the same video, he also suggested that people should consider working as security guards for people who live in the city’s luxury housing.
He said: “Such a job will pay at least HK$20,000 a month and you don’t have to be afraid of the wind and the sun. You just need to enjoy the air conditioning and register visitors.”
The video, which has been reported by some Hong Kong media outlets, has also raised concerns that taking discarded items from rubbish dumps in Hong Kong could violate the law.
According to Hong Kong’s Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation, “No person shall, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, rake, pick over or grub in any waste deposited in any place or remove or scatter any waste so deposited. Any breach of this may result in a fine.”
