日常生活
臺灣的垃圾回收制度 vs 美國加州垃圾回收制度
Recycling: Taiwan vs California
Taiwan's musical garbage trucks and strict sorting rules compared with California's bins-at-the-curb system. What counts as recyclable, who enforces it, and why Taiwan recycles so much.
課程預覽
How We Throw Away Trash: Taiwan vs. California
10 MINIn Taiwan, throwing away trash is a daily social event. Because of the 'Keep Trash Off the Ground' policy, people cannot leave trash bags on the street. Instead, they wait for the yellow garbage truck. When they hear classical music, they run outside. They throw their trash in the yellow truck and hand recyclables to the smaller recovery truck. This strict system helps Taiwan recycle about 55 percent of its waste.
In California, the system focuses on convenience. Most homeowners use three large, colored bins. They roll these bins to the street once a week: blue for recycling, green for organic waste, and black for regular trash. Large trucks empty the bins automatically. However, because all recyclables go into one blue bin, people often throw in dirty items, like greasy pizza boxes. This food waste ruins the clean recyclables. Also, Americans often do 'wishcycling' · throwing non-recyclable items into the blue bin and hoping they can be recycled. In Taiwan, municipal workers check your trash on the spot, which stops this problem.
Everyday Recycling Vocabulary
8 MINTalking About Taiwan's Trash System
4 MIN- 垃圾不落地 → Keep Trash Off the Ground policyA famous policy where people must hand their trash directly to the trucks, keeping streets clean.
- 資源回收車 → resource recovery truckThe flatbed truck that follows the yellow garbage truck to collect paper, plastic, and metal.
- 廚餘 → food scrapsAlso called organic waste. In Taiwan, we sort it into raw food scraps (for compost) and cooked food scraps (for pigs).
Your Recycling Habits
4 MIN- Do you always wash your plastic containers before recycling them? Why or why not?
- What is the most difficult thing to recycle in Taiwan? (For example: milk cartons, lightbulbs, or batteries?)
- If Taiwan changed to California's 'three-bin' system, do you think Taiwanese streets would stay clean?