BajaNomad

Talkin' (Mexican) Trash

Osprey - 4-29-2014 at 07:28 AM

Talkin’ Mexican Trash

Trash pickup and removal in this little Mexican village is free. A big truck pulls up twice a week, takes our garbage to the land fill about 6 kilometers east of town. Usually 3 or 4 guys including the driver work a long smelly hot day to rid the town (about 500 homes and various commercial stores and restaurants) of refuse.

The reason the service is free is that they have never figured out how to charge/collect for the service; if they set a fee, it went unpaid, the garbage would just grow to street-closing mountains in no time. I’ve only been here about 20 years and I’ve not seen that build up so maybe they already tried that decades ago and the results were ruinous enough that the rule was changed to a free service for all.

Free things are usually not nearly as good as those that cost you something. So you might imagine that sometimes they show up late and other times they just don’t show up. Nothing personal here because we might see the same faces for months in a row, then some new guys are driving and tossing cans. That creates a problem around the holidays because we reward the garbage crew around Christmas and we have a helluva time making sure we get our regular guys not the irregular ones.

The gringos here throw that San Lunes thing around when they don’t show on Mondays but that’s not the real story or the whole story. Saint Monday infers that they used that excuse not to show up for work because they were crudo, hungover, from drinking on Sunday.

Turns out they don’t really need such a flimsy excuse. There are 8050 recognized Catholic saints and venerables. That’s 22 Holy people available to be memorialized, observed and revered every day of the year. Now that I’ve enlightened you about the saint thing you’ll do less muttering knowing that if they miss your trash on Monday they have 8049 more shots at future by-passes. You’ll still have the same old chores of hauling in the heavy cans to the behind-the-wall storage area but you still won’t know have any magic way of knowing when they’ll come back.

I have recently learned that the municipio might be involved. It has been rumored that there are many fights between police/city service vehicles/garbage trucks when it comes to money for gas and vehicle repair. I think it might be safe to assume that the garbage truck often gets the last few gas pesos for the month and……..

My cultural tipping point (no pun intended) with the process is even more precarious because I often catch fish, clean it at my house and don’t want to drive all the way to the landfill. I don’t want to leave the skin, guts and carcasses long in the big black plastic garbage tubs, especially in the summer heat so I put it in my freezer until close to the time they usually show up. I’m sure they appreciate my small courtesy if they come early but if they come late in the day or a day or two later……?

If you lived here it’s not like you’re stuck with the process. You have options. You don’t have to freeze your fish guts and you don’t have to lug your garbage tubs back and forth while never knowing when to have them in the pickup place. You can jump in your spotless new SUV (your wife’s car), steal her keys and take the garbage to the land fill and try to get back before she notices. You’ll be welcomed at the land fill by our dump keeper, Chewbacca, then you’ll fight your way thru the black blizzard of flies, scatter huge squadrons of vultures and finally find a mountain of trash to add your stuff to.

While you’re hefting the tubs, several thousand flies will sortee into your rig looking for food. Popular local fly removal involves going as fast as the vehicle will travel with all the windows down for 3.7 miles back to the village without rolling the vehicle or being noticed by local traffic police. Your wife will easily spot hundreds of dead flies all over the big car when and if the exercise goes sour. What you’re gonna need then are a few hundred saints – use as many as you want, they are legion and handy.

I love this country.

[Edited on 4-29-2014 by Osprey]

bajalearner - 4-29-2014 at 07:37 AM

My dad used to burry fish remains near his plants. Now that I think of it, our neighbor in the Mafia had a beautiful yard.

BajaBlanca - 4-29-2014 at 07:38 AM

Trash, trash. Our pickup is now free but that's only because the last delegado made this one of his last decrees before his term ended. Nice guy, huh?

grizzlyfsh95 - 4-29-2014 at 08:19 AM

Don't forget about the nails (clavos) that you will pick up in your tires at the landfill.:(

Pompano - 4-29-2014 at 09:04 AM

Taking the garbage out can be a social event.

Those of us who don't live in a village with garbage collection have been running our trash to the local dump for many years....and make the most of the experience. I almost look forward to it. You never know what you'll run into...or who.

I once made a very good friend at our Mulege basurero when I was finally retiring a very old Servel gas refrigerator. This pleasant older gent kindly asked me if he could have it. I said, "Of course, I'm throwing it away." He said he could make something out of it and I helped him load it into his old truck. That old monster weighed a ton! I've known Victor and his family for almost 25 years now and we see each other whenever I'm in town. He sweeps the streets daily. We call ourselves Los Amigos de Basura and that chance meeting at the garbage dump makes for a fond Baja memory.

willardguy - 4-29-2014 at 10:03 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Pompano
Taking the garbage out can be a social event.

Those of us who don't live in a village with garbage collection have been running our trash to the local dump for many years....and make the most of the experience. I almost look forward to it. You never know what you'll run into...or who.

I once made a very good friend at our Mulege basurero when I was finally retiring a very old Servel gas refrigerator. This pleasant older gent kindly asked me if he could have it. I said, "Of course, I'm throwing it away." He said he could make something out of it and I helped him load it into his old truck. That old monster weighed a ton! I've known Victor and his family for almost 25 years now and we see each other whenever I'm in town. He sweeps the streets daily. We call ourselves Los Amigos de Basura and that chance meeting at the garbage dump makes for a fond Baja memory.
soooo....what did he make out of it?

Pompano - 4-29-2014 at 10:10 AM

Willard, he made a fish & meat smoker out of it...like so many of us have done. Great old metal body on those Servels...just make sure you take out all the plastic or rubber parts.

dasubergeek - 4-29-2014 at 10:30 AM

And then you have places like Pta. Trampa, where they have huge signs at the entry gates forbidding non-residents from leaving any trash with them, because there is no municipal collection and the dump is very, very far away.

sancho - 4-29-2014 at 10:45 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Osprey


The gringos here throw that San Lunes thing around when they don’t show on Mondays





I love this country.









That no Mon. work phrase is kinda stale, overused, even
if it is true, Funny stuff, some of your best work Osprey

Whale-ista - 4-29-2014 at 11:30 AM

thank you for an enlightening report.

Catolicos have many reasons/excuses/obligations that influence their daily lives. (I speak from experience: I'm a recovering Catholic school student who survived nuns...and a Mexican abuela.)

This fridge -->smoker idea is great- reduce/reuse/recycle is not just a noble idea in baja- it's a necessity!
Quote:
Originally posted by Pompano
Willard, he made a fish & meat smoker out of it...like so many of us have done. Great old metal body on those Servels...just make sure you take out all the plastic or rubber parts.

Pescador - 4-29-2014 at 01:14 PM

Unless someone has lived here and speaks enough spanish to understand what is going on, they are seldom prepared to deal with the trash issue. In Canada and the US, it is understood that trash pickup and disposal is a function of government entities and people, for the most part, have an almost morbid desire to clean up around themselves and all their neighbors as well. The first thing most people see when they come to Baja is the trash alongside the road, trash and junk in people's yards, and a general tolerance for "storing things around the house that you might get to use one day". This continues to be a real area of "cultural clash" that is not well understood by either side of the wall.

My Mexican friends have a really good laugh when on of the "clean freaks from Canada" come down and start organizing cleanups. While sitting around having deep discussions with a can of Tecate in our hands, the topic of ........ and her annual clean up comes up. There is a lot of derision and laughter about how they save up trash for the whole year and let her haul it off.

Another friend and I were riding down a dirt road the other day and it was pretty thirsty work so we fortified ourselves with a few Tecates. When he would finish he would throw the empty can out the window and when I remarked about him littering the countryside, he laughed and looked at me in that serious Teacher/Student look and said, that is how we go about serving the poor. We drink the beer, but the poor people who need the money get to collect the aluminum.

It is known around town that I keep my place clean and that is how I choose to live, but I have enough sense to not ever make a face or say anything about my neighbor who may have a different set of values.

If a cleanup happens, and it does occur when there seems to be a little extra government money, then I willingly pitch in and help because I live here, but I would never be so insensitive as to start and organize a cleanup, and instead wait for the locals to do that if they get the calling.