All About Garbage Cans in Everyday Ramblings

This is the young Crape Myrtle in the neighborhood yesterday afternoon. I like this picture, the whole of it and I haven’t been taking many pictures lately that I am fond of.

I feel sort of funny about writing about mundane things while there is yet another disaffected young man going around placing bombs in trash cans in such a way as to do the most damage possible.

And also when there is a man running to lead our country who has an unusual relationship with the truth.

It is all about fear. And it makes me sad.

So I will share my kitchen garbage can story instead.

I try very hard not to produce much garbage but it gets more difficult as almost everything comes in some sort of packaging. And about six months ago we got new rules on what we can recycle and what we can’t.

A paper bag under the sink taken out twice a week used to be fine but I began to realize that was problematic for my cat sitter so about four years ago I bought a white plastic kitchen garbage can that holds medium bags with a lid that would pop open when you press on it with your hands. I only needed to empty that once a week but I would get handprints all over it and had to work at keeping it clean.

Using plastic garbage bags was a huge compromise for me. They we started garbage wars with combo locks on our big outside bins.

This has been going on for months now. People disable, steal or just disregard the locks. Both folks living rough and tenants do this. And often in frustration they throw their garbage next to the bins. It becomes this huge mess.

They also told us that we had to start bagging our cat litter. I use a recycled newspaper litter and flush the poop so it isn’t to bad but still…

Anyway, the springs on the lid to my plastic can broke a few months back and without a lid the cats like to investigate and… so a couple of weeks ago I was listening to America’s Test Kitchen and they did a product review of…kitchen garbage cans!

The one they loved was expensive but had all the features I was looking for. The brand is SimpleHuman. For those of you who actually go into stores and shop I am sure you have heard of them but I hadn’t. There are into beautiful functional design for the kitchen and bath.

So I went to their website (well I went to Amazon first but I have become aware of drop shippers on Amazon and wanted to check out the source site too) and not knowing what size to get I did a little math (yes! Math) and decided that the 38 liter can would be more than adequate. The one I ordered is rectangular so it sits up flat against a cabinet and has a coating that resists fingerprints and a steel foot pedal.

It was delivered Thursday in this huge box. Huge! Talk about packing material guilt.

It is way bigger than I imagined but I discovered an amazing thing about that as a person who is not getting younger and a yoga teacher. When you have something to put in the bin, you press the foot pedal and the lid pops open and you throw your stuff in and you don’t need to bend over! It is very cool. I laughed with delight when I figured it out.

I am willing this contraption to Kes and Most Honorable as it probably is now my most valued possession.

It appears I am set for the time being… guilty for using bags that I now am.

At least I don’t need to take my trash out to the trucks with all my neighbors like everyone in Taipei when it comes around a few evenings a week.

Come to think of it…that might not be a bad idea. There would be much less stuff strewn around by people in a hurry or people who are beyond caring.

Last updated September 20, 2016