This is the Unholy Quartet. A fetid combination of animal, vegetable and mineral refuse and remains. I categorize it now as I do so many things that are just “different” here in Korea: “Korea Style.” That’s damn near anything that is just different from my home in the US. It’s been a while since I said things here were “weird” or “strange.”  It’s just “Korea Style.” Admittedly, some of the things they do are better than in the USA and of course, some are not as good. Many are just different. Like this, the unholy quartet.

This is the trash on our back veranda. Nothing new here. Everyone’s got (or should have) the recycling things: Paper and cardboard recycling, plastic and aluminium recyclables, and the non-recycling junk (I have to pay for the purple bag, the proceeds of which pay for the landfill) which has the soiled napkins, greasy foil, etc.  Sure, we’ve all got these.

But not everyone has the 4th and final final member of the unholy quartet. The coup de grace, if you will. The slop bucket:

This is where all of the food scraps go to die. Lettuce refuse, fish bones, carrot peels – anything organic get tossed into this slimy little bucket. When it’s full, I set it outside on the curb for the slop bucket truck to take. It’s costs me $0.10 each time to empty. Quite cheap, but given the vile smell, I’d rather just have a garbage disposal like nearly everyone in America has. Usually, we fill it up in a week. By then, the veggies have begun to liquify and putrify and it’s disgusting even to open the thing to add more.  Once the slop bucket truck empties it, it has to be vigorously cleaned, usually with strong bleach. It’s a real pain in the ass.

However, taking them all off my veranda to the curb is not simply the end of things. I wish it were. This week while riding my bike I got stuck behind the slop bucket truck who was making his rounds. The smell around it was a nearly visible cloud of funk. Although I stopped and waited for it to move along, the stench had already permeated my clothes. Yum. Korea Style.

And, of course, the paper/cardboard has it’s own army of cleaners, too.  The cardboard people. Almost always old men and women who gather the paper refuse and take it to points unknown. Korea Style.

Maybe it’s just a bit of my wanting to share this Korean lifestyle that makes me want to write about things like this. Only two visitors from America in 3.5 years and I guess the rest of you have to live it vicariously through this blog.