Korean Job Discussion Forums

[vastrei4]

I really do love so much about Seoul, but one thing that gets under my skin is the lack of trash cans.

Can someone explain to me the logic by placing so FEW trash cans around the city, I just don't understand. Wouldn't this cut down on the janitorial work around the city?

[Skippy]

No garbage cans means more street sweepers. It is a basic government make work program. The attitude is why worry about garbage as some street sweeper will pick it up.

Other reasons is terrorism. Garbage cans make good places to hide bombs (weak excuse)

Also, every time a local government puts out a garbage can it gets abused. I think the strangest site was seeing some Adjuma trying to save 500 won by trying to dumb her waste into a soccer ball shaped garbage can with a hole the size of a soda can.

[AsiaESLbound]

Old people bottom feed on the trash which works as they seem to need the recycling trash work since they do it. There is a trash collection and sorting lot near me where old people come and go with these rickshaw looking pull carts. It's a recylcing program they do that doesn't cost the city anything, but is funded by a pay per bag system as well as cashing in recyclable materials. I just buy these green bags for my trash and then put recyclables like bottles and card board in shopping bags to set out on the side of the street and they come and get it regularly.

Bus terminals have public trash cans, but nothing you can abuse. If they had trash cans in the street, people would just abuse it. Some bus stops have trash cans that just perpetually over flow so this goes to show people want to throw their trash in a waste receptacle, but there isn't enough to handle the load. People here are used to dealing with pollution more so than we are. For a country with a recycling system in place, it sure is a polluted trashy one.

[NYC_Gal]

Sanitation isn't funded by taxes, or so I've been told by a few people. This is why we buy special garbage bags and pay sanitation fees in our rent (many of us, at least).

Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

[brickabrack]

You'll be even more in awe by the lack of trash cans in small towns. Litter creates jobs for the street workers. Logical? Some might think so. I understand why it is done.

[T-J]

[hari seldon]

[WadRUG'naDoo]

Gangnam has plenty of trash cans with cigarette dispensers.

[crossmr]

[T-J]

Population density probably has something to do with it

Tokyo~4,400 / sq km
Seoul~10,300/ sq km

[zappadelta]

[Steelrails]

Just put your cigarettes in the same place I put my old motor oil and cooking grease- the sewer drain.

I kid. I kid.

[Troglodyte]

I've seen that a lot of people use those plastic bin things tied to telephone poles that hold real estate newspapers. Especially if they are near a bus stop. I've seen people drop litter in bike baskets as well. But most often, i see it accumulate on the street.

Some apartment complexes have large garbage bins that you can just throw your garbage in without a special bag.

When I lived in Japan, they had the same system as Korea (special garbage bags), but no one explained to me and my room mate that you have to separate garbage (metal, paper, food, etc). Since the bags are transparent everyone can see what you are throwing out. I don't know if our neighbors were watching us when we went to drop off our garbage and then hurried out to look at it, or if they just assumed that it was the foreigners who were mixing garbage, but pretty quickly our landlord told us that the neighbors were complaining about it.


What is the fine if you get caught putting out garbage in a regular bag? Do the police have to see you do it? Or can a neighbor simply report you?

Do the bags cost the same everywhere? Or some cities/areas are different prices?

[WadRUG'naDoo]