Karung guni
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The practice of Karung guni or karang guni is common in Singapore, whose practicers are a modern form of rag and bone men that visit residences door-to-door visits are made by these men in carts, to collect old newspapers and unwanted items for reselling at specialized markets, that will eventually be recycled or reused. "Karung guni" is a Malay phrase for gunny sack, which was used in the past to hold the newspapers and 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, ladio, TV, zhap ji ki..." ("Rag and bone, radio, television, newspaper" in Singlish) when doing their rounds. Depending on person, a small nominal sum of 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 became millionaires just from doing 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 from attempting to steal scrap material from the green recycling bags placed outside housing units for collection.
