Garbage Mountains

Colour me skeptical, but why are we seeing this behaviour if pickup is free and accessible like you say? In the original YouTube video from the guy who first found and raised the issue to the media, a fellow foreigner and hater of Taiwanese culture like the rest of us commenting here, I recall he talked about contractors say picking up rubbish from a hotel for disposal, then coming to one of these dumpsites to get rid of it.

Because some people will do ANYTHING if that means making 1 dollar more.

My best guess is laziness and entitlement.

Anyone can go outside and see the co stand urbside pickup services. Or call the hotlines. Its very repeatable & observable and scienically sound, not a theory hehe.

If it’s hotel, it’s probably fly tipping.

Thing is, waste pickup is for residential only, it does not accept commercial/industrial waste. They must contract private waste disposal companies, and my guess is, a few of them are fly tippers despite charging expensive rates.

This is a government project near our warehouse. The project is putting electrical lines underground.

The gov are digging everywhere and dumping the waste here. That’s I guess fine, for taiwan. It’s mostly rock sand and soil. Also broken asphalt and road which will leach chemicals into the stream directly below it. But it’s Taiwan, we aren’t on that level of clean water yet. We accept chemicals, so let’s forget about the government being retards and focus on the actual garbage start.

What I’m talking about, despite this dumping by a water source by the government is that the community has started to dump furniture there. Bigger items that took a truck to bring them there. I will also note there are cameras newly installed on the road to stop theft of pipes and wires as this type of crime is rampant in Taiwan. So, fancy new cameras and posts installed by the government to catch theft. Nevermind the dumping by the government and the community.

I work in this spot usually DAILY. So I can confirm door to door nearly daily garbage service and twice a week recycle. I know because I use this service that often. I swear, if I need to post a pic of garbage trucks 6 days a week to point out objective reality that anyone can witness I might lose my shit!

These furniture dumpers can easily call the hotline and have the governemnt come to THEIR HOUSE and pick it up for FREE. It was actually MORE expensive to use their OWN gas and truck and time to go dump it illegally than it was to get it done for you for free.

Fuck me. There are days I am just frankly tired of explaining 1+1 to supposed PhD level cunts. But here we are. With pictures.

Perhaps people like @gain can explain. extrapolate this by a fucking wildly high number. It ain’t china’s fault our society is also dumb as God dmaned bricks sometimes.





Edit, this furniture dump was just this morning. Imagine what the downslope looks like in 10 years…

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What is the arrangement there? If the government will pick it up for free then why dump it with their own truck? Does the government not pick up wherever they live? Taiwanese are extremely frugal, even if they are well off, so I find it hard to believe they rather pay for trucking to dump stuff when the government will do it for free. Even if the government will not pick up where they live for whatever reason, they could just truck it to where the government will pick up and just call it in for pickup. Those hotlines are free for 5 minutes.

I just wonder what are local residents saying?

It would be helpful to explain that this service -1999 number- is for large items only (not everyday household waste) and limited to legal residences and doesn’t cover businesses, illegal residences (yes many houses in the countryside are illegal) etc…

Illegal residences and business etc… have to pay for collection of bulky items and everyday waste.

A lot of countryside addresses don’t even get waste collection. If you call 1999 they will tell you to take it to an address that is covered. There’s almost no excuse to do so in the city but if the nearest legal address in Pingtung is an hour drive away, they’ll just dump it illegally.

Are you just assuming this or completely making it up?
Living in a remote community in Pingtung the rubbish collection is more convenient than the city. We have a centralised area with large bins where to drop the rubbish anytime, then the truck comes and empties them, farm rubbish and large items we take to the nearest road and inform them to pick it up. It would be more effort to go dump it someplace illegally.

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Then why are they doing it? Is it just to be assholes?

Then why is it happening…?

Presumably it isn’t happening in the remote community in Pingtung where @Shaun008 lives.

Sometimes you get visitors who don’t know how to dispose of rubbish, you will get random piles that are waiting to get picked up at the side of the road, sometimes you will get a contractor who will pile rubbish while doing a job, then will phone at the end for it to get moved. As with all these, some people will add to an existing pile if they see it.

These trash mountains they seam to be government run from what I read, a supposedly temporary measure as the disposal facility’s cant keep up with the waste produced.

Live part of the time but mostly in the city at the moment, I will add this is just my experience in Pingtung, if he would have chosen some other random part of the country I wouldn’t have a clue.

It’s easy enough to solve. @Taiwan_Luthiers simply has to provide us with the evidence he has to back his claim. It certainly sounds like a possible plausible explanation.

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Yeah, let’s wait for him to provide that evidence then. I suspect @Shaun008 might have called it already with the two possibilities of “assuming this” or “completely making it up”. :whistle:

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The most plausible explanation so far, in my opinion.

Because these dumps are ‘off the books’, some are probably just getting forgotten about, until someone in the community raises it up, if ever.

As I already mentioned, they can come to pick up at your door and arrange a time * FOR LARGE QUANTITIES *. If a person works through the logic. Each truck say has a 20km route +/-. They get full, need to drive back, empty and go back. This takes loads of time. His is why they say if you have a lot, meaning g their trucks fill up instantly, they want you to either go to the dump yourself (recycle free, garbage by the kg…they have a scale and it is required) or arrange a time with them to come via their hotline.

Its so far beyond convenient it’s ridiculous.

Just today I finally could leave the house with my truck (road somewhat drive able and good dry weather ) I parked on the road to dump. Recycle guy asked if thats all recycle, yep. Go dump it there, you don’t need to seperare it. Easy peasy. Those without vehicle just need to call and arrange a time.

Again, there is literally ZERO DAMN REASON we see the amount of trash everywhere outside of society basically being entitled peices of shit in general. Just warh smokers, even the educated ones, nearly all dump their butts on the ground, in the ditch etc. Those people are moronic assholes, full stop.

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If it’s as easy as you say, why do people dump? Is it just so they can be antisocial? Some Taiwanese thinks they should do it like Singapore where if you were caught littering they make you sweep up cigarette butts from ditches.

That’s what’s so fucking insane, isn’t it!!! Why the actual fuck do it…!!! In most cases it’s MORE expensive and MORE time spent to dump illegally. It’s whacko logic.

Ps. It’s not what i am saying, it’s literally how the entire country and infrastructure is setup by the government. This isn’t an opinion, it is an objective FACT anyone can find out by asking the garbage folk or calling them. Ive known about this for 20ish years and been using this service all across the country since I found out.

I agree illegal dumping should have more severe punishment. As is it’s not a deterent.

Or maybe they don’t know the government makes it so easy and is operating on information 30 years out of date (back when the government has not the resource to offer these services)?

There needs to be a lot more education and enforcement too.

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