Glimpses of that humanity were on display on a recent winter evening in Taipei. Still, people said just being able to see familiar faces - even if partly obscured by masks - has been a source of solace at a time when the pandemic has left many feeling isolated. And some who live in upscale apartments have building management take care of their trash.Ĭoncerns about the coronavirus have also meant people are more wary of interacting at pickup times. Of course, there are still the antisocial types who just want to dump their trash and leave. In 2018, a candidate for Taiwan’s legislature in the city of Kaohsiung followed the garbage truck so he could campaign at pickup sites. There are stories of couples who met while waiting in line for the trash pickup. The system has also fostered a sense of community in many neighborhoods, helping strengthen the civil society that undergirds Taiwan’s vibrant democracy. “Through this system we can avoid garbage piling up and keep our environment clean,” said Yang Chou-mou, an official at the environmental protection bureau in charge of sanitation work in Xinyi District. It’s all part of a decades-old waste management policy in Taiwan under which “trash is not allowed to touch the ground.” Officials insist that forcing people to hand-deliver their trash to the trucks - as opposed to wheeling out their bins for a later pickup or tossing the garbage into a dumpster - has been essential to the transformation of a place once nicknamed “garbage island” into a clean, largely litter-free society. All have their ears open for those first bars of “Für Elise” or “Maiden’s Prayer,” a flowing piano melody by the 19th-century Polish composer Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska that is the other tune of choice for Taiwan’s trash trucks. Some pass the time looking at their phones. Visit any city or rural town and five days a week, rain or shine, you’ll find people idling on the side of the road with bags at their side, waiting for the garbage trucks. Waste collection systems vary around the world, but no place does it quite like Taiwan.
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