Culture shock = Garbage ??? who'd a thunk it?

The garbage situation here is weird. They don't have any dumpsters, nor garbage collection the way we are used to thinking of it. Instead, you buy a garbage TAG from the post office (of all places ???) for $1.50, and then you leave your tagged bags by the road on Tuesdays or Fridays, and they are picked up from there.

My understanding is that the purpose is to encourage recycling, as that is free... any thing glass, plastic, metal, paper, cardboard... all free to recycle, so the fee for the bag tag, apparently, encourages folks to recycle as much as possible, leading to less "tagged" bags for the dump.

Makes sense, kind of... with one huge lack... they don't "pick up" recycling... you have to take that to the right place in town... Seems to me, that if one wants to encourage recycling, one would make it simpler, like... free recycling containers, and a free pick up day... If i figure out why that Doesn't happen here, I'll let you know...

weird thing to realize, that my first encounter with Canadian culture shock involves local garbage customs... grins