Rubbish

The Norwegian garbage removal system has been very challenging to learn. When we first moved here, we were given 3 containers for refuse--a barrel for recycled plastic, a barrel for garbage, and a barrel for kitchen waste, plus little brown paper bags to put the kitchen waste in. (I guess all the kitchen waste is composted somewhere.) We were told that garbage was picked up on Thursdays, and in the first couple of weeks after we moved, we created a lot of garbage....and it wasn't picked up. I saw the garbage truck pull up, and then a man jumped out and looked at our garbage, and then took our plastics and left. It turns out that they only pick up one of the containers each week, so garbage is only picked up every 3 weeks. I swear we're not all that wasteful, but our garbage can is really small--if crammed, maybe 2 garbage bags will fit in it. But we produce more garbage than that, so we always seem to have an extra bag sitting outside the can. Kevin really wants to create less garbage, but we don't always see eye to eye on what is garbage and what is kitchen waste. I think if a paper towel is used to wipe up a spill in the kitchen, it's still a paper towel, and therefore garbage. Kevin argues that if the paper towel has food on it, it is kitchen waste. I know, scintillating discussions take place at our house!
Anyway, people in this town take their refuse seriously--many have built little houses for their waste containers. It snows a lot here, so I guess it makes sense to try to keep everything dry. All these little garbage sheds are actually kind of cute, just big enough to hold the 3 containers, and painted to match the houses. But then the waste management people decided to throw a wrench in the gears--they delivered another barrel to all the houses for recycled paper and cardboard. It's been a big problem for a lot of people--we even know some who have decided to tear down their little garbage house and rebuild to accomodate the new container! Our house didn't come equipped with its own little refuse container shed, but I really found myself wishing it did a couple of days ago after our big snow--sweeping a foot of snow off the cans and then prying open the frozen lids while holding bags of garbage and kitchen waste was not a good time! Kevin's always up for a DIY project, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear that I would like a garbage shed, white with a black roof to match the house!
Oh, by the way, after talking to Kevin about the rat incident, I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't think I was nuts to bring a rodent into the house, he actually sympathized about the poor little thing too. Although when I lamented the fact that the ground was too frozen to bury the rat, and I felt so callous throwing it out in the garbage, he was annoyed, saying, "A rat is organic material--you should have thrown it out with the kitchen material for composting!" Yup, scintillating conversations abound at this house!