Wednesday, March 16, 2005

garbage wars

While living in Bongch'eon-dong during my EC stint, I was buying 50-liter trash bags for my large, 50-liter trash can. When I moved back up north at the end of February, I didn't want to waste the remaining trash bags, so I took them up with me.

The other day, I saw that the trash service had refused to pick up my trash.

The trash bags bought in Bongch'eon-dong are white with blue lettering. The text on the bag mentions what kind of trash goes into it, and lists what region the bag was purchased in. As it turns out, the bag can only be used in that region.

I suspected something like this from the beginning, but being an asshole, I wanted to test the limits. So last week, I put out my trash using an old trash bag, and it got picked up. The second time, I wasn't so lucky. The trash service passed me over. My response to this wasn't to buy the proper bags; no-- I simply turned the improper bag around, so that the blue-ink label was facing away, hoping the trash folks would simply grab it and toss it.

Two days ago, the trash folks made a statement. They'd left my bag on the spot, but had turned it around, improper label facing outward. Basically they were saying, "We know what shit you're pulling."

So I gave in, bought Jangui-dong bags (which have a green label, not blue), and the trash got picked up today.

Of all the fucking things for Koreans to get all law-abiding about, why goddamn trash disposal?


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