2023/04/22

I lived in a high-rise apartment building for a long time, where everything was catered for, so looking back, I think I was quite spoiled. It was a residence that sold itself on its convenient lifestyle, so the apartment door would be opened for me, the concierge would collect my luggage, I could go to the station without getting wet in the rain, and it was a very convenient life in every way. I didn't have to think too much, and everything just came out naturally, so of course, the garbage disposal area on the same floor was only a 30-step walk away. Leaving aside the larger items, I felt refreshed if I took the food waste from my daily life to the garbage disposal area after cleaning up after dinner every day.

However!! There is no garbage dump within 30 steps of Muraya!! The one there is only XNUMX minutes walk away.

Garbage dump. You can put large garbage in the back. Regular garbage in the black box.

In a way, this is obvious, but it was a pretty shocking fact when I first moved into Muraya. What's more, I didn't even think to check about this before moving in, and only found out after moving in when I asked myself, "By the way, where do I throw away my trash?" How foolish of me to do this.

In the end, it was so far away that I felt hesitant to go throw out the trash after cleaning up after dinner.

I was used to throwing out the trash after dinner, so I felt uncomfortable leaving food waste in the house overnight, and suggested to my Hong Kong husband, "Let's put a trash can outside and keep the food waste in there until morning." He replied with a straight face, "Absolutely not! The wild boars will come to eat it!"

There's no way there could be boars around here, I thought to myself, but he was so adamant that I suppressed my feelings of incomprehension. A few days later, I saw a group of plump mother and baby boars dashing across the main street, and I realized that my husband's argument was correct. By the way, I should be clear that even though we live in a village, the MTR station is only about a 15-minute walk away, so it's in the "city" (lol)!

Now, we have no choice but to leave the trash in the kitchen until morning, and when either my husband or I go out, we have an unspoken agreement to take it out. Also, in Muraya, there are places where you can separate plastic, cans, bottles, carbon, and general garbage, so you can separate them.

Separate and discard trash for recycling.

One day, I was about to leave the house when I encountered a taxi. However, I had a large bag of food waste hanging from my hand. I had to make a tough decision: should I take a taxi or take a garbage dump? Since I was not in an area where taxis came often, I ended up getting in the car with the bag of food waste hanging from my hand. Needless to say, while I was driving, my mind was racing with thoughts of where I should throw away the garbage. However, the taxi drivers driving around Muraya were used to it. It was clear that what I was holding was garbage, and they silently pulled up next to the garbage dump as if to say, "Can I throw away the garbage?" Oh, thank you so much, driver!

Looking around, I discovered that many households have full-time helpers, so in most cases, they probably don't really care where the garbage dump is.

That's why, in my case, we've managed to adapt even though the garbage dump is only a three-minute walk away. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't know about it when I signed the contract for the apartment. When I first heard about the location of the garbage dump, I even thought, "It can't be!" If I had asked about the distance before signing the contract, I might have hesitated to move in. Well, I didn't have much of a choice, so I ended up getting used to it quickly, but... People hoping to live in Muraya should be prepared for this.

Glass bottles, cans, plastics, newspapers and other carbon-based materials

This is Hong Kong LEI's column, "Emi in HK: Hong Kong in Numbers," which reports on the current state of recycling and waste in Hong Kong. Please also read the 1,470th article, "0.5g of waste generated per day (over XNUMXt per year)."

Well then!

We welcome any questions you may have about living in Muraya. If there is anything you would like to know, please leave a comment! We may use your question as a topic for a future post (laughs).

Hong Kong's Landscape in Numbers Emi in HK Vol. 1,470 "Daily Emissions: 0.5g (Over XNUMXt per Year)"