Dumb question maybe, but does anything actually happen if you fail to bag your trash in the official city trash bags?
I’ve been told to always use the designated trash bags (and complied), but some people definitely throw random unmarked trash bags in my building’s trash area or even bring unmarked bags out to the garbage trucks. What’s up with that?
I think it varies… But the official bag isn’t that expensive anyways.
Also new Taipei accepts Taipei bags and vice versa. Taipei bags are white or blue depending on size, new Taipei bags are pink.
But a lot of shopping bags are white and it can be hard to tell and trash collectors have better things to do than inspect every bag for the hologram.
I got my garbage rejected once when I had just arrived in Taiwan, for not using the correct bag.
I was waiting for the musical garbage truck and when it arrived one of the workers looked at my bag and said “不行!” Then, someone with a broken English told me “wrong bag”.
I realized what happened and went back to my apartment carrying my garbage back. Then, I had to wait for the next time the singing truck came by to throw all the accumulated trash.
Lesson learned!
Outside of the biggest cities ,where else does this happen? know taipei is strict, and some other cities are getting the memo to put on a show in certain routes.
I see too often people dumping recycling int he garbage truck and it being totally fine.
The EPA here has essentially told.manufacturers its hammer time now. that’s often the first step, maybe ina few years the public will also be held accountable for their wastage. at least, I sure hope so!
You also need to realize that other cities outside of Taipei/Taoyuan don’t necessarily have the bag system yet. For example in Tainan, in the countryside you just throw the garbage in the truck, no bag system and waste management is charged to your water bill…
No wonder I had no idea what the OP was talking about.
Recycling goes into the normal garbage if it’s already soiled with food, sauce, grease, liquids, other trash, etc.
When in doubt, you’re supposed to put it in the normal garbage so as not to contaminate the other recycling, so sometimes there will be recycling in the normal garbage.
If you live in an apartment building that has a dumpster then you do not need the special bags. At least that was the case with two apartment buildings I lived in before. Just throw it in and truck comes and gets it. The building I live in currently we need to put in the special bags and our caretaker takes care on making sure the recycling is all sorted properly. Then a man that is hired for the whole block of apartment housing comes and gets all the garbage recycling and non-recycling. The only thing you have to do yourself is food garbage. You have to bring that out when trucks come in the evening. However we do not. We just put it in with regular trash. Not illegal to do that
These buildings likely pay for private waste collectors, and your guanlifei pays for that.
Note private waste collection is extremely expensive, like many times the cost the government charges (via the bag) for waste collection, but it is far more convenient. I have no idea what the waste collector do with the waste, I certainly hope it’s not to dump it in the mountains.
Commercial operators must use them because the government does not accept commercial wastes, only residential. This is why illegal dumping even exists.
It’s very common for companies to buy the bags, and give the waste to their employees to throw away. It’s that expensive.
Indeed. if that were e case, no issue. I’m talking clean cans, bottles, boxes and glass. in another thread I discussed this issue. in a meeting our company had with the EPA I brought this up and in no uncertain terms mentioned if we are to pay them so much in fees for manufacturing (they have MANY regulations here, and fees per kg of various materials) and they still dump [clean] recyclable materials in the trash then why should we conform to their fees and regulations? They agreed, looked a bit taken back that it happened. The recycle trucks showed up in 2 days and stopped telling.people to throw it in the trash.
may be a knee jerk, but still a step. it is ridiculous in my opinion. more people should complain and make it public.
