Karung guni

The practice of Karung guni or karang guni is common in Singapore. Its practitioners are a modern form of rag and bone men that visit residences door-to-door [Brown A. Singapore English in a Nutshell: An Alphabetical Description of Its Features. Federal Publications, 1999. page 121.] . They make visits in carts, collecting old newspapers and other unwanted items. These will be resold at specialized markets and eventually recycled or reused. "Karung guni" is a Malay phrase for gunny sack, which was used in the past to hold the newspapers. The karung guni men would haul the heavy sacks on their backs as they walked their rounds to do the collection. Today, most of them use a hand truck instead.

These people can be distinguished by their use of horns and shouts of "karang guni, poh zhua, ladio, dian si ki..." ("Rag and bone, newspaper, radio, television" in Singlish and Hokkien) when making their rounds. Depending on the person, a nominal fee is paid for the quantity of newspapers or unwanted items sold.

The karang guni industry is made highly profitable because of the dense urban nature of Singapore, where hundreds of public housing Housing Development Board apartment units are located in one block, with often a dozen blocks in each housing estate. This gives the karang guni men large access to sources of scrap. A number of karang guni men have become millionaires just from the karang guni business. Recently, they have faced competition from government recycling initiatives that directly collect from residents material to be recycled. A few karang guni men have been prosecuted for attempting to steal scrap material from the green recycling bags placed outside housing units for collection.

References

ee also

* Culture of Singapore