I am moving into a flat soon and have been told that I need to personally wait for the garbage truck everyday to throw my rubbish away as the block has no common services.
I have never come across this before in other countries and it’s odd that one has to curtail one’s activities in order to throw rubbish away at 730pm everyday or whatever time. I heard however that there are agents that you can pay who will remove your garbage for you. How would I engage these services? And how would I pass my rubbish to the agent to collect it?
Not sure if there is that type of service but you should have rented a place with a monthly residential charge (similar to an HOA) so that garbage service is included.
Yes indeed, a rather whack system when compared to other countries, but i think it works really well here in keeping the streets clean / and minimising the rodents & vermin.
You get used to the system after a few months, and may even start looking forward to it
Regarding someone to collect your garbage for you, i guess it depends on the area you in. You STILL need to leave your garbage outside your building, but probably at a more conveniant time for you. From my recollection the rates were as follows last time i enquired, (1 yr ago),
200NTD - You sort your garbage into different types, and put the general waste into the Blue Garbage Bags, recycling into any bag etc. and leave outside your building.
500NTD - Just leave your garbage outside your building in any bag. (Blue Garbage bag included into the rate of 500 NTD)
You can try this guy, Mr Yang : 0911 233 762 - (Songshan District - Not sure if they are area specific) Oh and he does not speak english
In most countries only the ice cream van plays music …
The system in Taiwan is thought up to improve social contact between citizens and reduce work and costs by the community … and prevent dogs and cats of destroying garbage bags and strew it all over the street …
Wouldn’t you get ticketed for doing that? The whole point of dumping your gargage at designated times is so that no one would leave their garbage outside. Anyway, make sure there’re no surveillance cameras pointed at the spot you intend to leave the trash.
Some people take it to work …
When looking for a place to live … check if they have a garbage removal service …
I even leave my recyclables outside my door … the building’s cleaning woman takes it away …
Food left-overs I take out a few times a week and drop it in bins/vats that the city leaves here and there on the street …
All else go in the paid-for/taxed pink garbage bags and put it the plastic containers the building maintenance provides and takes care off … so, no garbage headache here …
Three good points (although i suspect the first one is an unintended consequence).
BTW, in Okinawa (and at least also in those (other) parts of Japan where i have lived at some time), the musical garbage trucks come in the morning, so i suffered severe culture shock upon arriving in Taiwan.
Check to see if there’s garbage pickup nearby at a more convenient time. Sometimes they’ll come to your neighborhood at 7:30, but another truck will be down the street at 9:50.
[quote=“dizzyhytes”]I am moving into a flat soon and have been told that I need to personally wait for the garbage truck everyday to throw my rubbish away as the block has no common services.
I have never come across this before in other countries and it’s odd that one has to curtail one’s activities in order to throw rubbish away at 730pm everyday or whatever time. I heard however that there are agents that you can pay who will remove your garbage for you. How would I engage these services? And how would I pass my rubbish to the agent to collect it?
Thanks[/quote]
It’s brilliant innit! You can get 20mbps fibre internet but still have to chase the bin lorry in the evening right bang slap in the middle of dinner/a bender/The Weakest Link.
The Taiwanese think it’s a marvellous idea, and as every other country in the world organises rubbish collection at local authority level, it’s seen as An Integral Part of Taiwanese Culture Not to be Messed With. Some stoic foreigners who’ve been here a while sort of rationalise it (virtue out of a necessity and all that), but it is the most bonkers thing I’ve seen in Asia, and/or The World. Er, actually, no. The absurdity of UK rubbish collection is the silliest I’ve ever seen: streets full of technicolor wheelie bins emptied on different days bi-weekly according to their contents.
The only way I’ve found to deal with it is to find the recycling collector people and ask them to throw the rubbish away for you in return for a suitable amount of recyclable material, but you still kind of have to go out and schlepp about at the end of the alley wasting key drinking time. Don’t forget to turn the light on in the stairwell too when you come home from work, or you’ll brain yourself later on running for the evening bin lorry. It’s regularly turned off by the other residents in order to save 12p a year.
It used to be that there were dumpsters stationed all over Taipei, back in the early 90s. You could just throw your garbage in there. That suited me perfectly well: I’d just toss my trash in on the way to the bus stop in the morning. But that didn’t work out for some reason. So they started stationing a dude by each dumpster to stop people from throwing stuff in until a certain time of the day… I suppose the garbage rotted quickly in the subtropical heat and gave off a stink (but that’s why you keep the dumpster lids closed, isn’t it?). Then in about 1995 they came up with the current system (though without the special blue sack requirement).
