I hope this is the right place to ask this question.
For those of you that chase the melodic garbage truck down the road on a regular basis, you most likely have to separate your trash in different categories. As for the SO and me, we separate in these few categories:
Food waste
Paper
Plastic
Glass
Aluminum/metal
‘Else’: Anything else that doesn’t fall in these categories goes into the paid garbage bag that you can simply chuck in the back of the truck.
Well the SO and I can’t agree on where to put the potato chips bags… You know, the semi plastic-metallic bags that conserve the tastiness and crispiness of those often weirdly flavored snacky snack…
Do you put them in the ‘plastic’ category or in the everything ‘Else’ category?
everything else. Usually too much grease and food waste left in them for good recycling. But negligible metal (there’s that thin film that’s sputter-coated on the inside often, to increase air and water resistance), so if they’re clean they can be recycled as plastic.
Thanks for the quick answer urodacus!
We do rinse them off to avoid the roach riots while they sit in the bin until the next trash day, so I guess we can start recycling them then.
Whilst on the subject what are the correct categories… especially when it comes to plastic/polystyrene like materials. Do they all go together?
We have an old couple at the bottom of the road who usually take paper/cardboard, and polystyrene I think.
But by the time I get to the trash truck proper, usually I have food waste + plastic and/or paid bag… sometimes with polystyrene + plastic in together if the old couple not there…
The recycle guy normally fumbles through my recycle bag, throws most in his big white bag (on the white truck) leaving a few items, then gestures to the other recycle truck (forget the color), I walk over feeling like a moron and that guy takes the remainder… whilst i want to be a good citizen i sometimes hate the recycling with a passion as I always end up with 1 or 2 items the guy feels the need to pull… i am not sure if i’m doing it wrong or the recycle guys get a laugh out of making the foreigner feel like an imbecile… I guess at least they don’t shout at me when i get it wrong which is a plus…
So what is the trick or the knowledge i appear to be missing.
It is just that some plastic is not sellable. Like glass, which is also not for profit. Those you give to the general government collector truck usually right behind the garbage truck. If by polysterene you mean the white packing stuff I think that is not sellable, so the old couple may not be interested in it, but you must give it to the government recycling truck to dispose of, not the general garbage in paid bags. Cardboard is gold, as are cans and old appliances, those give to the old couple.
But I think the big government recycling trucks must take everything else that is not garbage per se.
Yea, it’s the plastics that seem to always catch me out. I’m just not 100% clear how one relates to the other, seems often times different people class it differently. Maybe cos i receive quite a lot of samples so often have various packing materials in with my trash.
So for instance, you might have regular polystyrene, the plastiky version of polystyrene, the thin foam bags electronics come in, bubble wrap (which they insist goes with polystyrene not plastic stuff!), PET folded packaging/gift boxes, regular food outside wrappers, and food internal molded plastic trays (which again i believe do go with polystyrene)… makes my head spin just thinking about it…
Hey, you’ve reminded me of similar questions! What about …
cardboard with the waxed interiors - for biandang and the like. Just with the regular cardboard?
the cardboard with the metal/tinfoil backing and metallic tops or bottoms, like for example some tins of nuts, or I think Pringles. (This is the one that befuddles me.)
They’re all recyclable. Cardboard goes with paper, waxed or not. However, if it’s a container, even if it’s made of paper, it should go with bottles, not paper. A rule of thumb is collapsable/foldable items (like paper and plastic bags) and solid items (bottles, containers) should not be mixed together. So something like a milk carton, since it’s made of paper, should be flattened and recycled with paper, not with containers. Styrofoam is collected with plastic bags I believe.
I’ve been diligently recycling for years. The only thing I refuse to recycle is kitchen waste. :snooty: That bin is just gross to be near.
[quote]Q: What products are made from recycled Polystyrene?
Polystyrene is not only versatile as a product, but also versatile in the recycling thereof. Products made from recycled Polystyrene include:
Coat hangers
Seedling trays
Curtain rods, finials and holdbacks
Cornices and skirtings
Outdoor furniture
Poles and decking[/quote]
If I’m eating at an event (such as a company event hosted at a conference center) that has provided a trash can/dumpster for general waste but not a recycling bin or compost bin, then I can just throw everything into the general waste bin, right?
That seems to be the logical thing to do (albeit environmentally less friendly), but for some reason the Taiwanese people I’m with seem to think you’re supposed to just take the compost and/or recycling home with you.
Call me crazy, but I’m not taking my compost home with me in my laptop bag. Is there some kind of government fine if compost or recycling is found in a trash dumpster for general trash? How would they even enforce that? Do they open up the garbage bags and inspect all the trash?
There’s no law that says you must recycle leftover food, though the government encourages you to, because food waste is hard to incinerate. People who think you’re supposed to recycle the food are probably Buddhist.
Hate to be the one to break it to you, but virtually everything ends up in the landfills, and always has. The garbage truck thing was a solution to the problem of Taiwanese people just leaving trash everywhere and pests becoming a serious problem. Making ppl buy bags for trash but allowing them to recycle in whatever container and dump food waste into a special bin was an effort to reduce the amount of landfill trash produced. But there have been many, many videos of recycling immediately being commingled with the trash, and plenty of shots of “recycling” in massive mountain-sized piles outside in the sun. I’m not saying “give up” (as a foreigner, I find myself being singled out all the time for not doing things “correctly”, even when I do), but I will suggest you “不要想太多” (don’t think about it too much)
Thanks for your response. I don’t actually care where the trash ends up. I’m more interested in knowing whether I would get in trouble with the event organizers/venue staff if they spotted me throwing away leftover food or plastic bottles into the general garbage bins they provide, when they don’t provide recycling or compost bins.
Asking me to take my leftover food and empty bottle home is kind of a stretch.
Well the current issue is that there are just mountains of trash/recycling, piling upwards and exposed to the elements. One assumes they eventually export the trash to somewhere else or burn it. “Landfill” is a direct word that evokes yucky-ness, whether or not the trash is heading to one isn’t really the point.
This is what I do. I do not even know exactly what counts as general waste or recycling. I throw everything in the general waste pretty much wherever I go. In many years nobody has stopped me or even thought to bring it up with me. And if they did, I would just shrug and look like I do not know what goes where, which in fact I do not, because I cannot be bothered to think about it longer than 5 seconds.
especially when it comes to plastic/polystyrene like materials. Do they all go together?
