I’m still confused. I live in a community where we’ve got common garbage cans (and, in theory, recycling, although those containers are ignored by most of the residents unless the regular garbage cans are full). I don’t have to take our garbage out to the truck, thank goodness.
So what would this bag policy mean for people in my situation? Does anything change for those in the big buildings? Do I now have to buy different bags?
And is this policy somehow related to the fact that all of Tamkang University’s on-campus outside rubbish bins have now disappeared?
For those in a building with trash service, like me:
I’m pretty sure you will need to buy the new taxed bags, put your trash in them, and then put them in your building’s trash bins. If your building’s trash person somehow finds out whose trash was put in the trash bins without being in those taxed bags, then you’d probably get in a bit of trouble.
I guess that’s my point, and the reason why it’s worth a couple extra bucks a month to have someone pick it up at my door. I don’t have to be home for garbage call and I don’t have to join the march to the truck.
[quote=“scomargo”]For those in a building with trash service, like me:
I’m pretty sure you will need to buy the new taxed bags, put your trash in them, and then put them in your building’s trash bins. If your building’s trash person somehow finds out whose trash was put in the trash bins without being in those taxed bags, then you’d probably get in a bit of trouble.[/quote]
Thanks. That clears things up a bit. In general I like the idea of making people pay for their garbage, but I’m worried about how much extra trash is going to show up on the roadside.
Maybe with increased cost for garbage, some of the other people in this complex will actually start to recycle a bit more carefully! (Well, I can dream.)
Come on icon this is a great system that has been well implemented in Taipei city. Before I became declasse I lived in the city and all neighbors behaved quite civilized in sorting their trash and always putting the right things in the right bags. It cuts down on volume immensely and helps to instill a bit of civil pride. When I first moved here to Xindian a few months ago I was shocked to see no one recycling kitchen waste or recyclables. Pure laziness and lack of enforcement.
Like a new MRT line it will take a few months to sort things out. Enforcement is the key but I see no reason the garbage guys here won’t learn to bark at people like they do in Taipei.
Oh, I agree it is a great system, logical and that it improves the living environment. Nevertheless, personally, I know that those bags are expensive and don’t hold cat litter that well, so it means double bag -inner normal, outer pay for- for our household needs.
I can see all the elderly bunch around here and the Filipino maids finding a way around the rules. It’s going to be at least funny. haven’t seen the guys bark yet, though.
Our recycling goe sto the elderly ladies or poorer neighbors. I remember it being expensive back when I was living in Shida with this roomate who had a cat and we wnet though like a thousand nts or more of bags per month -don’t ask me, I never understood it either. But he put his biendang and pizza boxes in them…
It’s a stupid system and it’s just another way for the government to tax you.
Where I live people are already recycling and the recycle lorry/truck whatever you want to call is piled full of stuff every day of the week.
I’m with Icon on this sucking for cat sand as well, as that stuff is heavy and you have to double bag, if not triple bag it.
And I really don’t like saving up kitchen slops for a few days, as we’re only two and we don’t end up with enough making it worth trying to run out with it every day, so it just goes in the bin and by the time that goes in the garbage, most of it’s gotten fairly inedible for the pigs.
And how come people in other countries manage to recycle just fine without a fee for the garbage bags? I really hate this system and it’s also a hassle to buy the special bags, as you can’t get 'em everywhere and have to run to a corner shop to get them, not at all convenient where I live. It’s a sucky system and that’s that.
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]It’s a stupid system and it’s just another way for the government to tax you.
Where I live people are already recycling and the recycle lorry/truck whatever you want to call is piled full of stuff every day of the week.
I’m with Icon on this sucking for cat sand as well, as that stuff is heavy and you have to double bag, if not triple bag it.
And I really don’t like saving up kitchen slops for a few days, as we’re only two and we don’t end up with enough making it worth trying to run out with it every day, so it just goes in the bin and by the time that goes in the garbage, most of it’s gotten fairly inedible for the pigs.
And how come people in other countries manage to recycle just fine without a fee for the garbage bags? I really hate this system and it’s also a hassle to buy the special bags, as you can’t get 'em everywhere and have to run to a corner shop to get them, not at all convenient where I live. It’s a sucky system and that’s that.[/quote]
We pay NT$1300 per month for our trash pickup at home. They come once a week. We have 3 wheelie bins; a 120 L trash can, a 350 L recycling can, and a 350 L yard waste can (which is also used for kitchen scraps). We are allowed to put out extra recycling and extra yard waste for free, but if we put out extra trash we pay NT$200 per 50 L. We have to buy our trash bags but they’re not taxed (beyond the normal sales tax).
One of the critical factors influencing our city’s high recycling rates is that if they find recycling or compostable food scraps in your regular garbage, they will fine you NT$3000 PER ITEM. It’s a civil infraction so you have to pay it before you can renew your driver license or get any other kind of government permit. I think they have been issuing a single warning ticket before the real thing, and it only takes a couple of tickets on a block to get people to comply.
I have been doctrinaire about recycling and composting for many years; my father was the big recycler when we were growing up, and that was many years before recycling was cool or even supported by most municipalities. Now when I see people putting glass and aluminum in the regular trash in Taiwan, it makes me cringe, and I’ve been known to carry empty containers home to recycle them instead of putting them in the trash wherever I happen to be.
Cat sand? I fill the bags with cat sand and they do not break. Buy the smaller bags if you are worried. Or carry the sand out in a heavy grocery bag and put it in the blue bag at the last minute when you toss it all in the truck. Also hold onto to the tops of both bags so the sand bag doesn’t tear the other. Really easy.
I don’t how you could possibly spend NT1000 a month. It’s only a couple hundred for a bag which has ten or so inside.
Anyway, it is amusing for me to hear all the same grumbles I heard in Taipei when this began. People never change. Until they get used to something and then they can’t live without it.
In Toronto we have to pay a tax for the type of garbage can we want (higher for the bigger cans)
Since nobody wants to pay more, many people just toss the extra trash in the neighbours can if one week you have too much.
There would be no way I would be interested in paying per bag for garbage. As others already said, I can see alleys and streets being filled with garbage in no time flat.
Doing this would in no way cause me to conserve or recycle more. I would probably be so upset that I would recycle less. Governments should stop shoving these fake “green incentives” down everyones throat.
[quote=“dan2006”]In Toronto we have to pay a tax for the type of garbage can we want (higher for the bigger cans)
Since nobody wants to pay more, many people just toss the extra trash in the neighbours can if one week you have too much.
There would be no way I would be interested in paying per bag for garbage. As others already said, I can see alleys and streets being filled with garbage in no time flat.[/quote]
Others don’t know what they are talkign about. It’s pure cynicism.
You aren’t the target. Taiwanese are and it has worked with them.
There’s a word for people like you.
Not fake. It worked which is why its being replicated. What’s so hard for some of you to grasp. IT WORKED!!!
The special-bag collection started several months ago here in Linkou. I think it’s been a great success. They used to send the recycling truck just twice a week, but now they send it five times a week (every garbage collection day). The recycling truck used to have very little in it, but now it’s always at least twice as full as before - so it’s evident that the separation of recyclables has increased enormously.
My garbage-truck and recycling-truck workers are very friendly, and I’ve never seen them barking at anyone. They always wish me a very cheery hello and goodbye, and thank me for giving them my garbage. They love it when my daughter comes out with me and waves to them.
To my surprise, the pay-per-bag scheme has actually turned out to be a money-saver for me. The cost of the bags I use is actually less than the old garbage-collection charge that used to be included in the water bill - and as the great majority of my garbage consists of soiled nappies, I’ll be saving even more when the little one doesn’t need to use nappies any more.
I’ve religiously separated and recycled here for at least the last 15 years. There was a recycling station in New Garden City when I lived there way back in the early 1990s. The residents in my apartment building arranged for everyone to put their recyclables together at the entrance to our building every few days, and we’d take turns to carry the whole lot over to the recycling station. That worked very well, except that another foreigner in the building failed to take his turn (perhaps he couldn’t read the Chinese notice explaining the arrangement), and one neighbour offensively stuck a notice on our notice board complaining that the scheme was being messed up because the foreigners in the building (i.e., me and him) were not cooperating. Since I’d never missed my turn, I got very angry, and scrawled a furious, expletive-larded diatribe against the writer, in Chinese, on the notice board. I duly received a humble apology (very publicly, at a residents’ meeting), but nursed a deep sense of grievance against that racist bigot ever after.
[quote=“Mucha Man”][quote=“dan2006”]In Toronto we have to pay a tax for the type of garbage can we want (higher for the bigger cans)
Since nobody wants to pay more, many people just toss the extra trash in the neighbours can if one week you have too much.
There would be no way I would be interested in paying per bag for garbage. As others already said, I can see alleys and streets being filled with garbage in no time flat.[/quote]
Others don’t know what they are talkign about. It’s pure cynicism.
You aren’t the target. Taiwanese are and it has worked with them.
There’s a word for people like you.
Not fake. It worked which is why its being replicated. What’s so hard for some of you to grasp. IT WORKED!!![/quote]
Ive been told im an ass before for not caring about these fake green programs… doesnt change my opinion that its a pile of bull.
Go after the large polluters… oh thats right, they are given a pass by the governments, while the little guy with a 50cc scooter gets harassed about pollution.
[quote=“dan2006”]Ive been told im an ass before for not caring about these fake green programs… doesnt change my opinion that its a pile of bull.
Go after the large polluters… oh thats right, they are given a pass by the governments, while the little guy with a 50cc scooter gets harassed about pollution.[/quote]
Why are they fake? They produce demonstrable drops in the level of garbage going to local incinerators. That’s a major success. This is a small island with limited capacity to deal with garbage. So most of it is incinerated. Every bit you don’t recycle or reuse just becomes more dioxin laden ash getting back into the environment.
As for big industry getting a pass, yes, in many ways they do. That isn’t an argument against a successful program to reduce garbage.
It’s a civil infraction so you have to pay it before you can renew your driver license or get any other kind of government permit. I think they have been issuing a single warning ticket before the real thing, and it only takes a couple of tickets on a block to get people to comply.