I mentioned in the very first post that I wrote here about how the quaint Taiwanese garbage collection system seemed. Walking around Taipei (or any city in Taiwan, I presume) an American will hear what seems to be the ice cream man -- or men, since they are everywhere. One would assume that the Taiwanese have an unhealthy addiction to frozen yum-yums, which may or may not be true, though his reasoning be false.

The irony of reality is that nothing is coming out of the truck, except fumes, and everything going into it has been eaten, used, broken, or tainted. That's pretty much where the humor ends though, for me at least.

In Taiwan, the trash is collected every single day, which, at first thought, conjures dreams of the sort of efficiency and work-ethic that I longed for in France. If the truck comes wandering through your neighborhood every night, you will never worry about that freezer burned chicken you forgot to cook or the tofu you left open stinking up your apartment. Just chunk it in the evening, and you'll be able to sleep well, knowing you've done your part.

Like I said, though, that's at first glance. Taking out my trash has, in fact, become one of the most frustrating impossibilities of my stay here. While it is convenient that the garbage truck comes five times a week, if it comes while you're at work, well, it might as well not come at all.

Since I have started working, two months ago, I have been at my apartment only one time when the garbage truck has come buy, and I documented it.



(NOTE: Dad, there's a message to you in there. Lesson learned: plastic boxes don't hold up when shipping books.)

When I got down to the corner, an elderly lady approached me and asked me something in Chinese. I told her that I didn't understand and told her that it would be easier for all of us if we just spoke in English (I'm obviously joking, ok. I don't even know how to see all that in Chinese). She pointed to the three bags of plastic bottles and cans and then pointed to her van. I nodded, and she waddled back to her mobile receptacle.



Things heat up as the truck approaches. Everyone gets in his/her ready stance. My heart starts to race. I was honestly worried if I was going to screw something up, making the trashman bark something at me in Chinese.



...but when the dust settled, I pulled it off.



I don't know if I put something in the wrong truck, but I at least got my trash out of my appartment. You can hear me saying, "Just walk away..." That's because I explicitly didn't make eye contact with the trashman. I just chunked everything in the truck and walked away. If he yelled something after me, I wouldn't have known what to do anyway.

Not mention that the damn whistle sort of frayed my nerves. I felt like it was some sort of drill. I needed to just get my affairs in there before he made me do push-ups or air-chair.

"So," might you -- my adoring public -- ask, "if you've been in Taiwan for two months, and you've only seen the trash truck once, do you constantly have an appartment cartoonishly full of fish skeletons and dirty soup cans?"

That might be a really good question, you, and thank you for maybe asking it.

The answer is, no, that is not the only time I have taken out my trash. You see, I've had to resort to querrilla trash disposal. About three times a week, I dispose of my trash in public trashcans in the metro or on the street.

This, however, you must understand, is not nearly as easy as you may think. In recent years, in a move to implement certain environmental policies, the Taiwanese government has made it harder to dispose of waste, trying to get the Taiwanese to throw away less and recycle more. Part of this is making people throw away their waste in special (more expensive) trashbags.

Making sure they didn't try to skimp on the bags, they drastically reduced the number of public trashcans on the streets and in the parks. In the metro, the mouths of the trashcans are about the size of a softball, not permitting large quantities of trash to be introduced.

I question the effectiveness of this policy. Walking around in Taipei, you see little nooks and alleyways full of trash. I surmise that this is either a result of the same problem I have, or people skimping on the proper bags.

Case in point, the corner near my apartment, where (as you can see in the photo) the sewer grate has become a de facto trash collection. Because I took them in the afternoon, these photos do no justice to the amounts of trash that accumulate there in the evenings location. On a normal night, there will be about twenty bags of trash, a couple of tree branches, and the occassional rat-stuck-to-rat-paper. The stink is less than appetizing.

The general pollution in Taipei has actually been one of my biggest problems with life here. Many places reek of exhaust fumes and trash. I knew of this before I came to Taiwan, but, because I had also heard of the efforts to curb it, I overestimated it's turnaround. I thought, Yeah, it's bad now, but they're working hard to make a change. Taiwan is the new Japan.

I'm not saying that I was wrong, but I was certainly mistaken about the time it takes to remedy said problems. It might even be better than my impressions lead me to believe. One study, released this past January puts Taiwan pretty high (above the US) on the Environmental Performance Index.

That doesn't get the trash out of my appartment though. So, as I said, I've resorted to geurilla reconaissance sorties. I've found a few large-mouth trashcans into which I can stuff a modest sized (regulation) bags. Many of the larger receptacles are out of my way, so I am required from time to time to stuff smaller bags in the tiny trashcans in the metro as well.

One day, I had the bright idea of asking my co-workers what they do. After all, they're all in the same position. Turns out, either their trashman comes a' knockin' two, even THREE, times a day or they have a neighbor who takes it for them.

Man, did I get screwed. I've asked Fanfan to show me where the nearest morning pickup is , but she doesn't know...or there isn't one...or something (I forgot what she said). As for the neighbor, I've already mentioned that the neighbor is insane, so I prefer not forming any bonds closer to a nod of the head when we pass each other.

If anyone house ever found themselves in this position or can offer me some insight, I'm all ears.

Technorati tags:Taiwan, trash, life, environment, culture, green