testmeat photoblog

so in addition to the taiwanese streets seeming safe at night, they were also amongst the cleanest streets i've ever walked upon. to me this was even more remarkable as there is an absence of bins in most of taipei, which i discovered when i spent around 45 minutes trying to dispose of an empty coffee cup. as i understand it there used to be trash cans like you'd find in any city, however people would pile up their household garbage in and around them so every street would be overflowing with rubbish bags. somehow removing all these bins managed to change this behaviour, but of course the locals still accumulate waste like everyone else. so instead of dumping it somewhere they shouldn't, people wait for regular garbage trucks to pass by and descend to the streets ready to throw their bags inside. and a cute detail in this system is that the garbage trucks play a jolly tune to announce their arrival. as an outsider i found it funny that in my country a vehicle playing a joyful melody will encourage kids to rush out the house to get ice cream, whereas in this country it's adults rushing out to throw away their rubbish.

here's another street shot at night in taipei