How We Take Out the Garbage in Taiwan

I was playing a board game with Frederik from Mainz, Germany and he pointed me to something that he’ll never see in Germany – the garbage stop and music. Visibly, taking out the trash in Taiwan is a lot more involved than simply walking it to his trash can. He felt funny that these trucks are equipped with speakers that play music -- popular tunes include Beethoven's "Für Elise" and Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska's "A Maiden's Prayer"

In Taiwan, the garbage truck doesn’t come to us. Instead, we go to the garbage truck. Just like you have bus stops back home, Taiwan has garbage stops. We wait at these stops for the garbage truck to show up so they can dump their trash. The really funny thing that my foreign friends think but I do not think it is special is these trucks sound like an ice cream truck. Well, I think it’s strange the ice cream truck played “A Maiden's Prayer”. And in fact I never see the ice cream truck in my American trip.

Actually, I hate the "trash doesn't touch the ground" system because we always need to spend the evening waiting for the trucks and sometimes even need to run after a garbage truck. Somebody run after a truck by scooter and it’s very dangerous. I think it is a stupid government’s policy but I need to obey it.

Maybe I can check out the garbage trucks in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore on March.

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About 工作達人

Hi, I'm Stephen Liu! A Taiwanese couchsurfer, backpacker, food lover and postcrosser. My wife and I challenged ourself to visit all the counties and cities in Taiwan! Read more here.

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