Trashcans in the city of Vienna ウィーンの街中のゴミ箱

Vienna is a beautiful city. There are so many historic buildings, monuments and also many different styles of architecture such as Baroque, Biedermeier, Jugendstil, etc. In the city there are also nice parks with lots of green. Those people who like taking pictures will surely be happy about this. Personally I do not overly enjoy taking pictures but because there are so many beautiful and interesting things exist in Vienna, I get strong motivation to take pictures with my smartphone camera. Thereby the duration of my walks gets much longer than originally planned. Since Vienna has so much to offer, everyone can easily find their own personal favourite photo object. I noticed however that it is indeed difficult to avoid trashcans being in the picture! I have to say that there are really many many trashcans in Vienna. That may be one reason why the city stays so clean and I must think about those people attending to those trashcans doing a very good job and so I get a feeling of gratitude. It may be a difficult to completely avoid having a trashcan in the picture but I think it should remain like this.

In my homecountry Japan on the other hand there are very few trashcans on the street. When I am in Japan I find it unfamiliar in this respect. Also my Austrian husband sometimes complains that one must make an effort to look for a trashcan. That does not mean Japanese streets are dirty. I believe there are roughly two reasons for the limited number of trashcans on the street. First, because of terrorism. I think like this because of an Austrian friend’s opinion. Shortly after the gas attack in the Tokyo subway she visited a friend in Tokyo. Together with that friend she went to an open air festival and had some street food takeaway. Then they found nowhere to put the trash and carried it around all the time. That Japanese friend of hers noticed the decreased number of trashcans. After that terror attack it was meant to prevent dangerous substances from being hidden there. Second, strict separation of garbage. Nowadays in many countries garbage is separated for recycling such as plastic, paper, metal, etc. and this is a sensible thing to do. Also in Japan there are rules how to separate garbage and this is good. Since the introduction of strict rules the disposal of household waste has become quite complicated. There are specific weekdays for specific items starting in the early morning until about 8:30 AM and the waste has to be put in a special place in the neighbourhood. Incombustibles and incompatible waste can only be disposed of once a month. If you sleep too long you cannot throw out the garbage! Also people like us who cannot return home for a long time have to make a plan when to throw out the last trash because there must not be anything left when we leave. This is one thing that makes a stay in Japan more difficult every time. I suppose not only for myself but any people think it is strenuous or they missed the deadline and so they started throwing away their household trash in public places. Maybe to avoid this, many public trashcans were removed.

Eevery country has its own system of waste disposal. I think each country should try to diminish pollution of the environment as much as possible. Personally in Austia I have less stress in disposing of my waste which is quite agreeable to me.

ウィーンは美しい街です。歴史的建造物や記念碑や、バロック、ビーダーマイヤー、ユーゲントスティールなど、様々な様式の建物も多いですし、緑溢れる公園もあります。写真を撮るのが好きな人には嬉しい街だと思います。私は特に写真の趣味はありませんが、街があまりにも美しく、興味を惹かれるものに溢れているものだから、ついついスマートフォンのカメラで撮っておきたくなります。そのため、私の散歩はいつも予定時間を延長してしまいます。ウィーンは、誰でもお気に入りの写真スポットを簡単に見つけることができる街だと言えるでしょう。しかし、ゴミ箱なしの写真を撮るのはとても難しいんですよ！ウィーンの街には非常にたくさんのゴミ箱があると言っても過言ではないでしょう。そのおかげで、ウィーンの街が清潔できれいな状態を保っているのですね。しかし、このすごい数のゴミ箱を管理し、清掃する方々のお仕事は大変だと思います。感謝の気持ちが湧き上がり、頭が下がります。ゴミ箱なしの写真を撮ることが難しいとはいえ、この形式は崩すべきではないでしょう。

それに比べて、日本では、路上のゴミ箱の数は非常に少ないと思います。ゴミ箱の多いウィーンに慣れている私は困惑することがよくあります。オーストリア人の私の夫もしかりです。しかし、日本の街が汚いというのではありません。ゴミ箱が少ない理由は大きくみてふたつあると思います。ひとつはテロ防止のため。これは私のオーストリア人の友人の証言に基づいています。彼女は、あの地下鉄サリン事件のすぐ後、東京の友達を訪ねました。ふたりでお祭りに行き、屋台で買ったものを食べ歩きしましたが、その後のゴミを捨てるのに大変困ったそうです。東京の友達も、ゴミ箱があったはずなのになくなっている、と言って困惑していたとのこと。二人ともずっとゴミを持ったままだったそうです。テロの後、中に危険物を隠したりすることを防ぐため、たくさんのゴミ箱が撤去されたものと思われます。ふたつ目は、家庭のゴミを捨てさせないためではないでしょうか。分けるのがめんどい、とか、出し忘れたという理由で、街の中にあるゴミ箱に家庭で出たゴミを捨てることが多くなったのだと思います。私は、長い間、家を空ける前は本当に大変で、いつゴミを最後に捨てることができるかを考慮して、日本滞在を計画しています。

どの国も、それぞれのゴミ廃棄システムがあります。環境汚染をできるだけ少なくすることは非常に大切です。私としては、オーストリアではゴミのことで頭を悩ませることが少なく、自分に向いていると思います。

Picture by Yuka Simeno, June 2020 in Vienna