Michael: Trash Disposal

The rusty hinged screech
Of the roadside hawk may be
A breakfast invite.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Trash disposal here in Volcan is a throwback to a  bygone era in the U.S. sans the old metal cans. Here, you simply put your trash in a garbage bag, place it either by your gate or in your metal grate cage by the curb to protect it from the varmints, and every week it’s picked up by the garbage men. Here the garbage men operate in two or three men crews using a cattle truck. No fancy compactor truck like in the states. No separating out recyclables either.

Or so I thought. You see we don’t actually do all of our own garbage work.
Every Monday I walk over to our landlord’s house and lift our garbage over the fence and place it along side her trash in her wheelbarrow. She always has a small Ziploc with a few dollars clipped to her trash. How nice, I thought, a tip for those hard working hombres. But it’s not a tip. Garbage disposal here is done by private entrepreneurs . They charge a dollar a bag. Man, those guys are cleaning up (That’s a pun.).

Also, where we live near a dairy farm, or I imagine any place where you have a little bit of land, some people take their natural food remains and throw them into a compost pile.

Another space saver is burning whatever can be burned, and that includes materials that one wouldn’t even consider burning in the states. For example, we’ve been hanging on to some large chunks of Styrofoam packing material because on the net it says it’s toxic when burned. But I’ve been told to burn it. In fact, the look I got when asking was, “Why are you asking that goofy question, that stuff burns really easily.”

I haven’t set a match to it yet. I feel a little reluctant burning something I know gives off toxic fumes. But again, I suppose when in Rome, burn what the Romans would burn.