LettersHow Hong Kong can help the elderly beat poverty and be a driving force against climate change

It would seem that there could be a partial solution to two very pressing problems – averting climate change and ending the depressing cycle of elderly people having to scavenge the streets for waste paper products to make enough money for a lunchbox.

New York City has implemented a law that rewards people who report trucks and busses with idling engines with 25 per cent of the fines imposed. The fines currently range from US$350 to US$2,000 for repeat offenders. One enterprising New Yorker has already made more than US$9,000 from reporting such offences.

Such a law in Hong Kong would be both practical and sensible, given the precarious state of global warming, which is partly the result of moronic drivers who simply refuse to turn off their engines while stationary, especially in the summer months.

Local fines for such serious offences should match those of New York. The current fine of HK$320 is not even a consideration for most local drivers.

Elderly people who currently have no other option but to trawl the streets for cardboard and waste paper to make ends meet could simply capture these offences on their mobile phones and then be rewarded with 25 per cent of the fine, which would likely earn them far more than the pennies they now receive and would be far less arduous than dragging cardboard around our busy streets.