BANGKOK: Thai grandmother Nom Prom-on rummages through rubbish bins looking for
bottles, cans and paper to trade for food and other goods at a recycling
cooperative providing a lifeline for Bangkok's poor.
Riding an old motorcycle with a
rubbish cart attached, the 61-year-old and her husband Rai rise early to beat
rival scavengers to claim the best of the city's recyclable trash, which they
take to a cash-free "zero baht shop".
The couple have combed bins for
decades, but their earnings of less than 10 dollars per day are not always
enough to live on, so they turned to the cooperative.
"When we're starving, we can
find rubbish to exchange for rice to eat, detergent, soap and everything,"
said Nom, who also has grandchildren to raise and feed.
By selling to the recycling
plants in bulk, the cooperative gets a better rate than individual scavengers
would manage on their own.
Profits are then paid back in
dividends and other benefits to its members such as life insurance, interest
rates from its "rubbish bank" and help paying medical fees.
It is the brainchild of former
scavenger Peerathorn Seniwong and his wife Buarin.
"We thought of how we could
help the poor -- then we thought of rubbish -- at least every house must have
rubbish," Peerathorn, 45, told AFP.
The scheme's 800 members include
35 households of scavengers along with other local people who heard about the
shop in an area of eastern Bangkok and now bring their recyclables to trade.
A former security guard and
motorcycle taxi driver, Peerathorn came up with the idea after six years of
living homeless under an elevated road in Bangkok.
"Sometimes we would have to
buy things like fish sauce or rice on credit at shops," said Buarin.
"But people looked down on
us as we're poor and they'd wonder whether they would get their money back --
that's why we started our own shop."
Fish sauce, rice, eggs, instant
noodles, toothpastes and detergent are among the goods most sought by members,
about 20-30 of whom visit the shop each day, Buarin added.
There are several hundred
thousand scavengers in Thailand earning about 200-300 baht ($6.5-10) a day,
according to Thailand's Institute of Packaging and Recycling Management for
Sustainable Environment, which has provided education schemes for members on
issues such as hygiene and sorting rubbish.
An estimated quarter of
Thailand's 15 million tonnes of garbage a year is recycled -- largely thanks to
scavengers rather than efforts by consumers to separate their waste.
The cooperative's success is
inspiring others too, with several similar cash-free shops opening up in the
capital and elsewhere.
The institute hopes that 80
cash-free recycling shops will be set up across Thailand by the end of 2013.
The project is also generating
interest overseas with visitors from as far afield as Singapore, Japan and
Mexico coming to see how it works.
Its success reflects changing
attitudes towards rubbish, said Gloyta Nathalang, communications and
environment director at Tetra Pak (Thailand) Ltd, which runs the country's only
plant for recycling used beverage cartons.
"Recycling is not an alien
word any more -- people are aware and want to take more action. But I think
what we are lacking now is the system in place," she said.
Peerathorn is proud of what he
has achieved since his years living homeless under what people used to
sarcastically call his hundred million baht roof.
Rubbish collecting has provided a
good way to supplement his income, he says, and allows him flexible working
hours.
"It's better to work as a
scavenger because I don't have to be anyone's employee. Nobody tells me what to
do," he said.
- AFP/al
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