A: I think Taiwan’s “keep trash off the ground” program is pretty good. Before, everyone used to put their garbage in collection points. Even though garbage trucks would come and take it away, the places the rubbish was sitting were dirty, and they stank.
B: But the current system can be rather inconvenient, too. You have to be home when the garbage truck comes so that you can throw the trash out. What if you are at work when it does?
A: If your apartment building has security guards, they will take the trash out for you. You put the rubbish in a wheelie bin on the first floor, and when the time comes the guards will take it out.
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報記者佟振國
B: In the apartment I was in when I was living abroad, there was a small garbage chute door set into the wall on each floor. When you opened it up you would place your garbage bag inside and then close it, and it would tumble down a chute to a wheelie bin on the first floor.
A:我覺得台灣這個「垃圾不落地」政策還蠻好的，以前是大家把垃圾堆在一個定點，雖然垃圾車會來收，可是放垃圾的地方都會變得又髒又臭。
B: 可是這樣也很不方便，垃圾車來的時候你一定要在家才能倒，如果那時候要上班怎麼辦？
A: 如果是住有大樓管理員的公寓，他們會幫忙倒。你平常就把垃圾放到樓下的垃圾子母車裡，管理員到時候會把它拖出去。
B: 我在國外住的公寓，每層樓牆上有個小拉門，拉開後把包好的垃圾放進去，門一關，它就會沿著管道滾到樓下的垃圾子母車。
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱 )
Audio recordings for Speak Up! dialogues will be suspended until further notice due to the pandemic.
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