How non-readers in Hong Kong make money from free newspapers

So groups of poorer elderly people have discovered a neat way to make money. They are collected quires of the 1.4m copies of the four free papers published every day and selling them to recycling plants. Instead of queuing for free rice handed out by charities, they arrive at dawn to line up at the distribution points for the free newspapers.

Sometimes, they ask passers-by to procure copies for them. A reporter discovered that three out of ten published copies are currently falling into the hands of this army of newspaper collectors. Most of these are taken to recycling centres without ever being opened.