Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

My girlfriend described this once and I've been in Korea long enough to believe it before I see it. But I did spy it the other day and wish I had my camera.

Okay you know those official 15 cent trash bags you have to buy to throw out your garbage? You know how they have four little flaps at top to really do a good job of tying up the top? Well some ajummas treat those flaps as extreeee bag space. It goes like this:

1) fill up the bag.

2) once full, place a grocery store bag full of more garbage on top, extend the flaps around the top bag and then bind the flaps to the top bag with about 80 lbs of tape.

3) toss.

It's amazing what people will do to save a nickle here.

[ajgeddes]

The nickle they save can be spent on the tape they need though.

[riley]

My mom in law does the same thing with the 10L bag. It's pretty amazing how much she manages to stick in there.

[Corporal]

If (and when) I do that, it's not about saving money, but rather about getting smelly garbage out of the house. If I had some nasty food remains that need to go out, might as well cram them in with the bag that needs to go out or they're going to be stinking up the bottom of the new bag which is then going to sit there for at least a few days.

[coffeeman]

When I try to compress my garbage, I often risk splitting the bag from the pressure. I guess you need the "adjuma touch" to get the job done right.

[JongnoGuru]

Stupid Trashbag Tricks, is it?

How about this one --

You've got something that's too long or oddly shaped to fit into any of the district-issued bags you have on hand. The item is not recyclable, and for some reason you can't bend it, break it, or smash the *beep* out of it. So what do you do?

Well, if you're like some people in my neighbourhood, you don't buy a larger bag. No, you grab any district trashbag you have and you tape that bag to the item you're discarding. It's kind of a "Sorry! " approach to the problem. I've seen this done several times, riding around my neighbourhood.

The overstuffing trick, yeah, that's a low-grade pet peeve of mine. Most Korean women I've know would rather risk splitting the bag open than use an additional bag or a larger (more expensive) bag. It's got to be the stupidest thing to argue about, but I've done it. I usually hold the bag up and ask them, "Excuse me, but can you read this Korean for me?" (indicating the instruction at the top of the bag that says, in effect, "Stop stuffing when you reach this line!") Here, let me show you:





That blue text and the big line. (also note our famous district mascot, the official "Happy Condom of Jongno-gu")

Me: (being my usual jerky self) Okay, if you can't read the Korean, can you at least see that big blue line there?
Them: They just want people to buy more bags, b1tch b1tch b1tch!

The Happy Condom of Jongno-gu gets around. He's even on the sides of the garbage trucks.




For you apartment dwellers, garbage disposal means a lot of public dumping, right? You have take your non-recyclable rubbish -- your dumpings, your dumps -- over to the designated dumping areas, right? It's been many years, but that's one of the things I don't miss terribly about Korean apartment life. Everybody scurrying around at all hours of day or night taking their dumps -- over to the "People's Dump Receptacle of Nonstop Joy and Eternal Bliss"...

Around here, two nights a week everyone puts their dry garbage, food garbage and bagged/boxed/tied-up recyclables outside their gate.



By morning it's all gone. Seems almost like home. We all pull the bins inside the next day. One drawback is that the garbage collectors will ask for New Year's tips, and sometimes Chusok tips from residents, something that probably doesn't ever happen (anymore) at apartments. One of the alleged benefits of switching to the district trashbag/garbage separation system (years ago) was that residents would no longer be hit up for holiday handouts from the dustmen. I just knew that was wishful thinking.

[Zyzyfer]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[JongnoGuru]

[pet lover]

When I have a bag that is full but still have a few scraps of food that will get smelly soon, I stick those smelly bits in the freezer. No smell. Keeps well until I have enough to fill up the next trash bag.

[coffeeman]

I once lived in a neigborhood where shortly after I would put out my garbage, some ajuma living near me would untie my bag and stuff her garbage in it to fill it up 'till the bag was just overflowing.

My window was just above the garbage, so the first few times I heard a rummaging sound coming from my bag, I thought "Who the hell is spying on me?" But after seeing my bags stuffed with more garbage, I started buying smaller garbage bags and filling them up more. The rummaging stopped.

Those ajumas are sure resourceful and clever I think. This was hilarious for me in the end.

[Zyzyfer]

Why in the hell did I call JongnoGuru a buttmunch? Sorry, I was drunk last night.

[JongnoGuru]

I figured it was because you coveteth my trashbin. Or because you're district doesn't have as cool a mascot as mine does. I wasn't sure, so I tossed that gif up to gift the comment some after-the-fact semblance of relevance. But then I mucked up the links there. (btw, rather odd results you'll get from a google search of "buttmunch")

[tzechuk]

I have 10l and 20l bags at home.

I normally stuff the 20l bag until it full but not too full to close, and then stuff a 10l bag. If even then those two are stuffed and I have rubbish... I will start to get creative....

[JongnoGuru]

I can't recall now what year it was when they changed the rules, so I don't know if most Dave's readers will even relate to this.

My total dry trash volume in Korea -- and hence my expenditure on district trashbags -- was cut in half in a single instant.

That was the day they began accepting styrofoam as a "recyclable plastic". Computer gear, hi-fi gear, electronic gadgets... the packaging is often several times larger than the product, and most of that is styrofoam.

And I asked on another thread, but no-one answered. What exactly are people stuffing in their district trashbags anymore? (not your wet food garbage, but the dry garbage)

For me it's mostly hoover emptyings, ashtrays after parties, some slimy food-begrimed plastic wrap... not much. Lawn & garden trimmings go in huge, heavy-duty bags (woven polyester, w/drawstrings), but normal household trash... there's soooo little of that anymore.

In a normal week I'll generate one 10-litre bag of dry garbage, and several larger bags or boxes each of paper & plastic recyclables. And maybe one bag of recyclable glass bottles and metal cans every other week. Actual trash? It's maybe one-fifth or less than it was in the pre-garbage separation era.