PETALING JAYA, Dec 7 — Jamaluddin Majid has been homeless for the past 10 years. He lives off other people’s thrash and at times, he sleeps among the mounds of rubbish. 

“I collect plastic bottles and bits of wire in Subang Jaya and can earn RM20 a day,” he said. 

“This move to license people like me is like a slow death sentence because we earn so little. And what little we have is being taken away.

“I don’t bother anyone, I don’t beg. This is how I get by day to day. If I was making RM100 a day, I would have no problem paying for a licence.”

Jamaluddin begins his day at 6am to beat the foreigners, who also scavenge at the overflowing dumpers for recyclable material.

He collects the “precious commodities” in an old shopping cart.

“Why would they do this to us? I don’t even have a roof over my head but I’m somehow expected to pay for a licence to collect things people have thrown away,” he said.

Jamaluddin, who wholly depends on gathering materials for recycling, pleaded to the government not to impose the licensing fee.

“This is cruel. How can the government  squeeze money from the poor? I hope they will reconsider,” he said.

Another picker, Lo Bat Chong, 70, who was seen putting discarded cans into the wire basket of his rickety bicycle, said he was distraught about the proposal.

“The most I have made doing this in a day was RM30. If they want to do it, then I will follow the law. If they want to charge me a fee to pick through rubbish what can I do?” he said.

He was worried he would lose the licence as he was homeless.

“If they want to charge a percentage, so be it. I don’t know where I will keep the licence. If it costs me money and it gets lost, I think I would just give up,” he said shaking his head when he was asked what he meant by “give up”.

Madaip Sakur, 59, who works as a cleaner at an apartment in PJS10, collects materials that can be recycled in addition to his day job.

“Many people do this to make a little extra. Every apartment will have someone doing this but it’s not much,” he said while rummaging through a large dumpster.

Madaip said the need to have the licence was unjustified as it taxed the poor and those supplementing their income by collecting material from rubbish.