The former tenant of our apartment (who happens to be the owner) used a teeny tiny trash can with itty bitty matching trash bags for his main trash can. The whole trash system, shall we call it, was basically what most Americans would have in their home office or spare bathroom.
Shortly after we moved here, we went to IKEA, bought the largest trash can we could find - it's approaching the size of the normal American kitchen trash can, but not quite - and brought it home. Then, it was my task to find large trash bags to fit it. We only brought a few of our normal Glad drawstring trash bags with us. The first few trips to the grocery store, I was unable to locate any trash bags. They do not sell them in boxes here, for starters. They are not branded, there are not a billion choices - vanilla scented, extra strong, extra flexible, etc. etc. When I did finally locate the trash bags, they were in rolls with a slip of paper covering them that indicated how many trash bags there were in the roll and how big they were.
It was probably the third trip to the store when I finally found them. Then I was presented with a new problem. Nearly every trash bag was small or smaller, except for some really big (100ml) bags that happened to be see-through. I bought them. I have looked at other grocery stores and so far, the big bags seem to only come in really big and really see-through. The result of this is that we show everyone our trash when we take it out.
In case they weren't already staring at us thinking, "Foreigner! Foreigner! That huge trash bag is a dead giveaway!" They can now think, "Look at all that wilted lettuce those Americans wasted and threw out! Eeew is that next to a dirty diaper?"
When we take our ginormous trash bags to the dumpsters in the trash area of our building's courtyard, I always look in before throwing our bag in and I have not ever seen a big trash bag. Everyone else uses the tiny ones. I don't know how this is possible. How do Danish people not have trash? We recycle. We try very hard not to waste food and other household items. After giving this issue way too much thought, I have decided that the Danes must take their trash out ALL THE TIME. They clearly have no concern about wasting trash bags and take the trash out almost daily. There is just no other explanation.
Or, maybe...just maybe... we are SO American.
Shortly after we moved here, we went to IKEA, bought the largest trash can we could find - it's approaching the size of the normal American kitchen trash can, but not quite - and brought it home. Then, it was my task to find large trash bags to fit it. We only brought a few of our normal Glad drawstring trash bags with us. The first few trips to the grocery store, I was unable to locate any trash bags. They do not sell them in boxes here, for starters. They are not branded, there are not a billion choices - vanilla scented, extra strong, extra flexible, etc. etc. When I did finally locate the trash bags, they were in rolls with a slip of paper covering them that indicated how many trash bags there were in the roll and how big they were.
It was probably the third trip to the store when I finally found them. Then I was presented with a new problem. Nearly every trash bag was small or smaller, except for some really big (100ml) bags that happened to be see-through. I bought them. I have looked at other grocery stores and so far, the big bags seem to only come in really big and really see-through. The result of this is that we show everyone our trash when we take it out.
In case they weren't already staring at us thinking, "Foreigner! Foreigner! That huge trash bag is a dead giveaway!" They can now think, "Look at all that wilted lettuce those Americans wasted and threw out! Eeew is that next to a dirty diaper?"
When we take our ginormous trash bags to the dumpsters in the trash area of our building's courtyard, I always look in before throwing our bag in and I have not ever seen a big trash bag. Everyone else uses the tiny ones. I don't know how this is possible. How do Danish people not have trash? We recycle. We try very hard not to waste food and other household items. After giving this issue way too much thought, I have decided that the Danes must take their trash out ALL THE TIME. They clearly have no concern about wasting trash bags and take the trash out almost daily. There is just no other explanation.
Or, maybe...just maybe... we are SO American.
What they're hiding from you is that the toilet is also the garbage disposal for all plant matter... Gross, yes, but effective at cutting your trash in half....
ReplyDelete-Eric