In Taiwan there are basically two types of apartment buildings. Old five floor walkups, and newer taller ones with elevators. The older ones are like the wild west, nobody is in charge, anything goes, and there is no management fee. For the new kind though, there are a bunch of rules and that dreaded management fee.
What do you get for that fee? Well the big thing you get is somebody to take care of your trash and recyclables for you. I've said before that in Taiwan the trash and recyclables trucks drive around town and stop at specific areas at specific times so you need to take your trash there to put it in the truck. No leaving it on the street for them to pick up.
Not only is this a huge inconvenience but the worst part is figuring out the mystery that is recycling. Nobody seems to know exactly what is recyclable and what isn't. I've yet to meet somebody with a firm grasp on it. The government has a webpage but it contradicts itself, so most of the time I just end up calling the government to ask when i have a specific question. On top of this, each day is for specific recyclables. So you might take down that glass bottle only to find out that glass bottles are accepted on thursdays. Joy.
Although this is one situation where being a foreigner pays off. If you want to game the system you could just take all your recycling at one time and just feign ignorance. But I always tried my best to do the right ones on the right days. Also there is supposed to be a fine given if you ever throw away in the trash anything that can be recycled, but I have never once seen a garbage worker open up somebody's bag and take a look.
Thankfully now I'm back in a place where we have a trash lady. So we just put our trash in one bucket and our recyclables in another and she sorts through it and takes it out. Although I always do my best to really separate the recyclables, because since i'm a foreigner if a mistake is every made, than they automatically assume that it's the foreigner who doesn't know the rules. This happened a few times when I first moved in, until I ever so politely showed them that i know the rules better than they do.
As for the picture, it's the side of the trash truck. When I saw this on the street I couldn't help but chuckle. There is an electronic scrolling sign on it, but covered over that is a banner. I couldn't really tell which one was the one that we were supposed to read, and because of one being covered, and the light form the other, you can't really read either of them. Hope it's nothing important.
