If it's Tuesday it Must be Cumbustibles
Trash has become the fourth member of our family. On an island this size with so many people there is no room for dumpsters. It stays in your home until collection day. The good news is there are five collection days.
Monday; Bottles and cans. They need to be washed. The labels must be removed along with any plastic bits.
Tuesday; cumbustibles (food and paper without printing)
Wednesday; every other Wednesday is non cumbustibles and the alternate weeks are cardboard and newspapers. The cardboard must be cut and wrapped, newspapers and magazines must be bundled tightly. Milk and juice cartons have to be cut open in a specific way and then washed and dried.
Thurday; Plastic
Friday; food again.
If they don't approve of your wrapping methods they leave it there for you to figure out what you did wrong.
The garbage trucks play cute little songs. (The kerosene home delivery trucks play Russian songs but that's another blog.)
I'll spare you the details of what you do after you walk the dog twice a day.
One house in a neighborhood is designated as the house trash gets placed in front of. They change the house once a year so that no one's property value goes down. Someone from the neighborhood is assigned to keep the area clean.There are lots of feral cats around, you can identify them from the house cats because they don't have tails. People HATE them and try all kinds of things to discourage them from coming near their homes. Ususally they put out bottles of water to scare them. ? There are no trash bins on the streets. If you buy a latte in Tokyo you carry the cup with you until you get home. Mike and I have more discussions about trash than any other aspect of our lives.
5 comments:
Kathy, I will never again complain about going to the recycling center here in Louisville. And every time I look for a trash bin on the street, I'll be grateful. It's the little things that count.
Joanne
Your marriage seems to have taken an interesting turn. With the iMacs you speak to each other less, and then you speak mostly of refuse. I would say it sounds like most of my relationships, but ...
I hate the little things you miss when you're in a foriegn country. You don't even think of them when they're there, but you miss them when they're gone.
Calli
Heather is cleaning our garbage as we speak.
so out of curiosity, did you ever have to figure out what you did wrong in packing the trash?
and do you keep a color-coded calendar to keep track of the days?
Finally, the meaning of the bottles of water! I think the cats in my neighborhood are stalking my house...
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