It’s fairly common knowledge that trash trucks in Taiwan are unique with loudspeakers announcing their impending arrival with Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” or “A Maiden’s Prayer” letting everyone know it’s time to bring the trash out (and yes, like many foreigners I first thought there was an ice cream truck outside). I don’t know how the driver and compactor operator on the rear of the truck can handle listening to that for their full shift and they probably hear it in their sleep. The recycle collection truck that follows right behind doesn’t play music, but instead blasts a woman’s voice repeating some message I cannot understand as I still don’t know the language. People I rarely see all come out of the woodwork when they hear the music and swarm the truck like a bunch of ants on a piece of candy someone dropped on the street.

Trash is not stored in bins outside the home for specific collection days and the trucks come at a scheduled times five nights a week. When I first arrived in Taiwan it was a bit of a culture shock for me to learn there are no trash cans on the streets or in the parks, and each citizen takes their trash home with them. I don’t miss the overflowing garbage cans so common in downtown Toronto, nor the raccoons and skunks that rely on garbage as a food source. The very few raccoons found in Taiwan are pets, and there are none in the wild. Having more than a few skunk encounters of my own back home, I am ecstatic that they don’t exist here!

I’m easily amused by people’s behavior, so watching them interact with the truck has become a nightly source of entertainment while I’m out on the balcony with my coffee. First, there are the ‘early birds’ that drop their small plastic bags at the stop long before the truck arrives and then return at the pick-up time. Next come the ‘oldies’ who come to the stop early enough to gather in cliques to chat. This is my favourite group to watch because within this group are the ones performing ‘trash truck calisthenics’. There’s the lady that looks like she walked right off a Dr. Seuss page who (see what I did there?) does a slow motion march in place, there’s ‘Skippy’, an old guy that walks slow but does an characteristically fast hop-scotch in place, several that do slow-motion arm rotations, some that constantly punch their ass or do toe lifts, and one guy that lightly taps the top of his head with spread fingers, and it’s all considered normal as they do these movements while chatting with others who don’t appear to notice. Finally, there are the ‘trotters’ that consistently wait until the last minute to challenge themselves on how far they can toss the bag into the departing truck. The show ends pretty abruptly, and within a minute of the truck leaving the street is empty and quiet.

Seriously though, the trash collection system appears to work efficiently and with no litter and no outside storage of trash the streets are clean and rodent control is made easier. The spinoff benefit for the neighbourhood is the opportunity to socialize and get in a little exercise.

Gotta go – Beethoven’s calling!