Why older adults brave freezing winters, scorching summers to collect cardboard

A man who collects paper and boxes poses for a photo. [JOONGANG ILBO]

 
On a bitterly cold Wednesday, with temperatures plunging below minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), a 74-year-old man surnamed Lee pulls a big cart through the Sinsa-dong neighborhood in Eunpyeong District, northern Seoul. The cart, weighing at least 100 kilograms (220.5 pounds) when full, carries discarded paper and cardboard that he collects to make money.
 
“I get up around 7 a.m., bundle up, and head out to collect papers and boxes,” Lee said in a brief on-the-go interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. “Even on freezing days like this, there is competition for discarded boxes, so I have to start early to fill this cart.”
 
While Lee’s situation may seem especially harsh given his advanced age and the extreme weather, it is not an unusual sight in Korea: He is one of about 14,831 people over the age of 65 who earn money by collecting discarded paper and boxes in the country, according to a Ministry of Health and Welfare survey released in 2024. The average age of such people was about 78, and there were more women than men.
 

Paper collectors hurry on after sharing a few words with a Korea JoongAng Daily reporter and LoveRe: Paper staff. [YOON SEUNG-JIN, LOVERE: PAPER]

The obvious and simple answer to 'why older adults collect discarded paper and boxes': Poverty
 
In a 2023 survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 54.8 percent of respondents selected “to cover basic living expenses” as the main reason for collecting discarded paper. Another 29.3 percent said they did it for extra pocket money, while 9.1 percent cited health management and 4.3 percent said they did so simply to avoid boredom.
 
“Beyond the statistics, the reality is even worse. Some older adults can’t even afford a proper meal or a warm place to rest. They come out to work even when it’s extremely cold,” said Kim Yu-jin, the vice CEO of the nonprofit organization LoveRe: Paper.
 
The organization, certified and supported by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, runs projects to help older collectors, such as purchasing discarded paper at higher prices and producing and selling items made from the purchased recycled materials.
 
This points to an obvious — and disheartening — reason: Korea’s long-standing problem of having one of the highest poverty rates for older adults in the world.
 
According to Statistics Korea’s 2025 data, the country’s relative poverty rate among the older population stood at 39.7 percent, nearly double Japan’s 20 percent, more than 10 times Iceland’s 3.1 percent and nearly three times the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 14.8 percent.
 

A scrap yard that buys paper and boxes from collectors in Bupyeong District, Incheon [YOON SEUNG-JIN]

How much do they make by collecting and selling discarded paper, then?
 
According to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the price of old newspapers per kilogram stood at 126.3 won (4 cents per pound) and that of cardboard and boxes at 81.7 won in December of last year, marking drops of 18.6 percent and 45.2 percent, respectively, from January 2022 levels.
 
At those rates, a simple calculation shows that a collector who gathers 100 kilograms of cardboard and boxes would earn only about 8,170 won. With Korea’s minimum wage set at 10,320 won per hour this year, even collecting 100 kilograms does not amount to a single hour of minimum-wage pay.
 
“The price of discarded paper keeps falling, and older collectors earn even less because they sell to scrap dealers at the very bottom of the distribution chain,” said LoveRe: Paper's Kim. “In reality, collectors receive about 50 won per kilogram of discarded paper, meaning they earn around 2,500 won for 50 kilograms, and most make less than 150,000 won a month despite working five to six hours a day, five to six days a week.”
 
“Many of the older collectors we have met couldn’t find other jobs and have no savings or alternative sources of income. In many cases, even their children are financially struggling,” Kim added.
 

People wait in line for free meals at Tapgol Park in Nakwon-dong, Jongno District, central Seoul. [YONHAP]

A cart full of recyclable papers and boxes [JOONGANG ILBO]

Taking care of parents is no longer a given responsibility
 
On top of primary factors such as the lack of job opportunities for older adults and insufficient savings, experts and research papers point to changes in social perceptions on supporting parents in their old age.
 
“In Korea, the traditional structure was that parents spent heavily on their children, and the children would later take care of them. However, the mindset of the younger generation has changed,” said Kim Young, sociology professor at Pusan National University, referring to the traditional family structure in which adult children provided allowances, cared for their parents and often lived with them.

 
“Ironically, Korea is a society where it is taken for granted that children remain financially dependent on their parents even after becoming adults, which prolongs the period of parental support,” he said, noting that many children live at home until marriage, where they avoid rent and receive meals as part of a conservative, family-oriented culture. “As a result, most older adults had little room to prepare for old age through savings or private pensions.”
 
According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs’ 2022 Korea Welfare Panel Survey of 7,865 households, 41.86 percent of respondents said they “disagree” with the statement that “children are responsible for supporting their parents,” while 7.28 percent said they “strongly disagree.” Combined, 49.14 percent opposed the idea, compared to 21.39 percent who agreed.
 
This marks a sharp shift from 15 years earlier.
 
In the same institute’s 2007 survey, 52.6 percent said they “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that children should support their parents, while only 24.3 percent disagreed. Over 15 years, public sentiment opposing an obligation to care for their parents has more than doubled.
 

Artists hired by the nonprofit organization LoveRe: Paper paint on canvases made from discarded paper that has been collected. [LOVERE: PAPER]

Systematic problem: Flaws in Korea’s welfare system
 
Experts also point to flaws in Korea’s welfare system for older adults, particularly the relatively late introduction of the national pension system, as a major contributor to poverty among the demographic.
 
“When we talk about today’s older adults, we are generally referring to people born between the 1930s and the 1950s. Most of them receive little to no pension,” said Prof. Kim. “Korea’s national pension program was established in 1988 and provides benefits based on average income and contribution periods. As a result, older generations who were unable to contribute before the system was launched have much shorter contribution histories and receive near-zero payouts.”
 
Besides the contribution-based national pension, the basic pension for low-income older adults provides those aged 65 and older who are in the lower 70 percent of the income bracket with up to 254,760 won per month. However, this amount falls far short of covering retirement living costs: People aged 50 and older need about 1.166 million won per month to maintain a basic standard of living after retirement, according to a survey by the National Pension Research Institute.
 
“Ultimately, changes in poverty among older adults depend on how well the government guarantees income for them,” Lee Won-jin, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, wrote in a 2025 paper. “The more basic income support is expanded and supported in effective forms, the [better things get] for them.”
 
“Although there are many competing views on how to reform income-security systems such as the national pension and basic pension, one thing is clear: without expanding public transfers, it will be difficult to expect poverty among older adults to decline in the future,” he added.
 

Visitors wait in line to enter a job fair for older adults in Busan on Dec. 8, 2025. [YONHAP]

As a solution, the government is expanding jobs for the demographic, but are the results enough?
 
Facing rapidly rising issues related to poverty among the older population, the government has placed the issue high on its agenda. In response, the Ministry of Health and Welfare launched an employment initiative for the demographic in 2013 to create more job opportunities for older adults.
 
In the latest edition of the ministry's initiative, released in 2023, the plan seeks to prepare Korea for a super-aged society by expanding employment for the older population to cover about 10 percent of the demographic by 2027. The government aims to provide more stable public interest jobs while increasing social service and private sector positions to account for more than 40 percent of all such jobs.
 
Despite these efforts, meaningful improvements remain difficult due to low pay, limited job quality and intense competition for available positions.
 
According to data released by the Korea Labor Force Development Institute for the Aged in October of last year, the government’s 2025 budget targets the creation of 1.098 million jobs for older adults, surpassing one million for the first time. However, with 2.366 million hoping to participate, the fulfillment rate is just 46.4 percent.
 
Beyond the number of jobs, experts point out that limits on wages and working hours reduce their real impact since many of the positions are short-term or part-time, offering income that falls short of sustaining a basic standard of living.
 
“Many of the employment programs are not full-time, and the pay is not high enough,” said Prof. Kim. “They certainly help compared to having nothing, but they cannot serve as a fundamental solution.”
 
Such assessments underscore how difficult it is to find answers to Korea’s deep-rooted problems, leaving lingering questions as the OECD, which has repeatedly warned that Korea needs urgent reforms in its labor market and employment structure, stresses that “there is no time for complacency.”
 
“Korea is experiencing much faster population ageing than any other OECD country,” the organization said in a 2018 report.
 
“If nothing is done to improve the labor-market situation of older workers in Korea, this could put the brakes on the country’s living standards.”

BY YOON SEUNG-JIN [yoon.seungjin@joongang.co.kr]