Sent packing: Hong Kong's 年輩の cardboard collectors
Au Fung-lan is one of some 2,900 cardboard collectors, おもに older women, who are a familiar sight in Hong Kong
Her fingers are bent from 20 years of collecting cardboard from Hong Kong's streets, but Au Fung-lan says she has no 願望（する） to give up the gruelling work.
At 67-years-old she is one of around 2,900 collectors, おもに women over the age of 60, whose frail 人物／姿／数字s are a familiar sight, guiding trolleys 負担d with cardboard through a city clogged with traffic and people.
They 選ぶ up discarded packing boxes from shops, markets and 居住の buildings, selling them for a few dollars to 再生利用するing 倉庫・駅s, where cardboard is more 価値のある than plastic.
The 倉庫・駅s then ship it abroad -- up to 95 パーセント of it to 本土／大陸 中国 in 2016, によれば 地元の 当局 -- as Hong Kong has no 再生利用するing 工場／植物s of its own to 変える it into usable 構成要素s.
Au Fung-lan takes a break from her exhausting work to eat breakfast at a cafe in central Hong Kong
However, as 中国 の近くにs the door to 輸入するd rubbish, even from 半分-自治権のある 地域s such as Hong Kong, Au's 暮らし is under 脅し.
Beijing no longer wants the country to be a 全世界の trash can and has already started 段階ing out taking solid waste -- a 過程 it 推定する／予想するs to 完全にする by 2020.
Pragmatic Au says she tries not to think too much about her work 乾燥した，日照りのing up.
She continues to put in 14-hour days so she can afford a carer for herself and her 77-year-old husband, also a cardboard collector, when they finally decide to give up work.
"Some people think our work is arduous and look 負かす／撃墜する on us. They say: 'You are so old, go home and enjoy life. Why collect cardboard?'" Au told AFP.
"But if I can still work, I don't want to rely on others."
- Risky 商売／仕事 -
Au turned to cardboard collecting after 存在 laid off as a factory 労働者 and 特使.
She has three grown-up children with 職業s but does not want to depend on them for help.
By working from pre-夜明け until dusk, she earns up to HK$300 (around $38) daily, selling 300 キログラムs of cardboard at HK$1 (13 US cents) per キロ.
It is a phenomenal work 率 and much higher than the 普通の／平均（する） collector who makes around HK$47.30 a day, によれば 関心 group Waste Pickers 壇・綱領・公約 (WPP).
Au Fung-lan's 手渡すs are bent from 20 years of collecting cardboard on Hong Kong's streets
Au せいにするs her bent fingers to years of 涙／ほころびing cardboard with her 手渡すs to flatten it.
She has been 攻撃する，衝突する by a car twice, 負傷させるing her shoulders and feet as she 押し進めるs her trolley along a busy road to the 地元の 倉庫・駅 in the 居住の neighbourhood of Kwai Fong.
Her trolley and cardboard have also been 押収するd several times by 政府 hygiene 視察官s.
But she says she enjoys what she calls the freedom of working for herself.
"I'm not afraid. I do it every day," she says.
As 非公式の freelance 労働者s, collectors like Au have no 合法的な 承認 or 雇用 権利s.
中国's 切迫した waste 禁止（する） could wipe out this informal economy, which NGO 労働者s say is 重要な to some of the city's 年輩の.
Eighty パーセント of the collectors are over 60, with the oldest in their 90s. Eighty パーセント are women and around a third work at least an eight-hour day, によれば WPP.
Many are doing it to 補足（する） their 年金s and 貯金 in a city where the wealth gap is growing -- the cost of living in Hong Kong 階級d fourth highest in the world in 2018, によれば the 経済学者 知能 部隊.
"Cardboard collecting is part of a s ub-economy activity which supports grassroots 居住（者）s' 暮らしs," says WPP 広報担当者 強い味 Wing-him.
- Waste 危機 -
WPP 見積（る）s at least 193 tonnes of waste paper is 配達するd to 再生利用するing 倉庫・駅s by the 年輩の collectors each day.
Jacky Lau, director of a 地元の 商売／仕事 協会 for the waste and 再生利用するing 産業, said the 中国 禁止（する） could not only wipe out work for collectors like Au, but would be 破滅的な for the cities' 倉庫・駅s too.
If those 商売／仕事s were 軍隊d to の近くに there could be a "waste paper 危機" in Hong Kong as rubbish piles up, 結局 ending up in landfill 場所／位置s, he told AFP.
The city relies on landfills to 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせる of most of its waste but they are already 積みすぎる.
The 未来 of Hong Kong's cardboard collectors is uncertain as 中国 の近くにs its doors to 輸入するd rubbish
Lau says he hopes Hong Kong will still be 許すd to 輸出（する） some waste to 中国, given its status as a Special 行政の 地域 of the country. Other countries are not an 選択 予定 to the cost of shipping, によれば Lau.
He also 勧めるd the Hong Kong 政府 to 速度(を上げる） up a 計画（する） to build a 地元の 再生利用するing 工場／植物 to 過程 waste paper.
With the 未来 uncertain, Au and her husband at least have a roof over their 長，率いるs -- they own an apartment they bought in the 1970s, which gives them some 安全.
But it also 妨げるs them from receiving 政府 補助金s, except for a small 月毎の allowance for the over 70s, which Au's husband receives on 最高の，を越す of his 年金 as a former bus driver.
Au's children have 勧めるd her to give up cardboard collecting, but she sees it as an 投資 in her 未来.
"I told them: 'If you think I bring shame on you, then don't call me Mum when you see me,'" she told AFP.
"They kept 静かな after that."
