Let's Talk Trash

When I'm not thinking about Solomon/Soup, I'm thinking about trash.

There are two major differences between our current apartment and the one we rented last September. First, we paid $600 more for this apartment. Second, we have to take our own trash to the garbage truck.  There was no mention of trash disposal in the Airbnb description of this "Central Lush 2BR Apt @ Guting/Da-an".  And it never occurred to me to inquire about trash services because I'm an American and trash just magically disappears in my part of the world.

When we got here and read the information booklet about apartment rules and regulations, we discovered that we were responsible for sorting our trash and for taking it to the trash collection site.

 For advance  practise, we followed the map to the collection site expecting a giant dumpster.  There was nothing to indicate that we could leave our trash right there on the main street, so we called our landlady.  She explained that trash pickup occurs every night, except for Wednesday and Sunday, at 9:00 pm.  She told us if we couldn't cope she could come over and get our trash for us, but it seemed ridiculous to me to let her into the apartment every night for a month because we were too damn lazy.  However, learning to live with trash management has been challenging.  We have gone through at least 7 stages of emotion to reach acceptance.

7 Stages of Acceptance for Self Managed Waste

• disbelief
• pissed off (we're paying $600 to take out our own trash?)
• anxiety (how do we do this, where is the collection site, will we be late and have to take our trash home?)
• hilarity (we can't believe we're running through the streets with our night soil)
• desire for education (how do we sort the trash so the collection men don't yell at us?)
• resignation (we can do this)
• research (you can't believe how hard it was to find information on how to get rid of our trash.  I found lots of amateur blogs, but very little official information.)
• acceptance

Schedule

• Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat   Blue bag trash and food waste
• Mon, Fri  Paper, flattened recyclables
• Tues, Thurs, Sat   3D recyclables like clean styro foam, cans, bottles, containers

How to Sort

• Buy official blue bags from 7-Eleven for the used toilet paper (remember - no flushing), and used Kleenex, diapers, napkins, all disgusting stuff and things you can't figure out
• Save paper bags to put your flattened paper items in, in an orderly manner
• Save plastic bags to put your flattened plastic items, in an orderly manner
• Place glass and plastic bottles in another bag. These items will be dumped into a bin and you will take that bag home with you
• Save plastic bags to put food waste in.  You don't have to take these bags home - they let you throw them into a bag on the truck.You can also use a bucket, but we aren't going to buy one.   

How to Do It

• When you hear the music (it sounds like an ice cream truck), walk in an orderly manner past people dining in charming restaurants four blocks to the parade of trucks that will take your trash
• Truck number 1: Blue bags
• Truck number 2: Food waste -dump it into the bins in the back.  This will be boiled up to feed the pigs.
• Truck number 3: Whatever recycle is being picked up that night (refer to the schedule above)

Wrong

The trash collection man yelled at me because he couldn't see what was in the American white plastic bag. The pink bag has mixed recyclables which is a no-no.  One blue bag has food waste in them is not allowed.  We also had tied up the white and pink bags which is discouraged because the collectors like to see what you're throwing out.

Right

We have 3 blue bags, one of which has food waste in it (we're still learning).  The bucket also has food waste but it's in an appropriate plastic bag inside.  The pink and white bags have bottles  - plastic and glass. Everyone was nice to us on this evening

We should get a big smile for this contribution. These small bags contain our flattened paper and plastic.  This is a week's worth of recycling.  I can't believe I have one enormous blue bin in Portland for each week's worth of recycling.

Unexplained Mysteries That Happen Along the Way

Taylor broke a planter.  Where does that go?

Now that I have trash out of my system, I can continue to share the more interesting parts of living in Taipei in future posts.  I will also be more mindful of my trash when I get home, and where ever I travel.