From the Midwest redneck author of "The Rooster Crows at 4am!," "Lizard Poop!," and "The Philippines Expat Advisor"
Where, Oh Where Did the Garbage Go?
Thanks to Maria for the nudge to write this article. I thought I would jot down my own experience with trash removal in my area of the Philippines.
We live in the outskirts of Metro Manila. The bustling Barangay of San Dionisio, Paranaque. Since one of my many duties as a married man is the removal of the garbage, I naturally fell into that role in the Philippines.
One of the first things I noticed was the lack of large trash receptacles around the house and especially in the kitchen. It seemed that all waste was stored in plastic bags that hang in convenient areas about the house. In the evening I saw my Mother in Law collecting all the bags of trash from their various locations.
I naturally volunteered to relieve her of the load. "Where do I dump this, Mom?" "At the end of the street, near the telephone pole" was the answer. So out the gate I went and down the lane. Sure enough, there was a telephone pole with a sizable pile of plastic bags filled with garbage. 
Glancing left and right, still not sure of myself and not wanting to put a wrong foot in my soon to be adoptive country, I placed our trash on top of the pile and beat a hasty retreat.
Over the next several days, this scenario repeated itself, but every morning when I performed my morning chores, I noticed that the pile of trash was gone! Where did the trash go? It was really starting to bug me!
Well, one evening I decided to investigate. I dumped the trash, and over the course of the evening I wandered to the end of our street and back keeping an eye open for the trash fairy. Around 10pm I heard a rumble of a large truck and the loud voices of what I took to be happy workers. Sure enough, it was our Garbage Truck!
But no front end, skip loading, hydraulic labor saving type of truck for the Philippines, oh no! This was a large flat bed with a driver, co-driver and 5 or 6 guys in the back.
The truck stopped, the guys jumped down (the driver and his partner naturally stayed in the cab) and proceeded to throw all those small plastic bags up onto the truck. They even swept up the area area around it! Up onto the truck went the men and the truck trundled down the street to the next pile of trash bags.
Now my curiosity kicked into high gear. I followed the truck for several blocks, collecting more trash along the way, until it reached a vacant lot several hundred meters down the road. There were already a couple of similar trucks there. Here the trash was thrown off the truck to join the piles created by the other trucks. 
(Photo © Dennis Villegas 2009 from dennisvillegas.blogspot.com)
Once empty the men jumped onto the now empty trucks, which drove happily away. After what seemed only moments an even larger truck, with even more seemingly happy men in the back, pulled up to the huge pile of trash.
Yep, you guess it, down went the men and up went the trash. The huge pile quickly disappeared as did the truck and the happy crew. Where the trash went after that? I haven't a clue.
All I do know is that, even with my ingrained Kano sense of anti-littering, I don't hesitate to put any trash I might have onto the piles that line the roads. When in the Philippines, do as the Filipinos do. 
Thanks for the story, Scott H. Loved that “trash fairy” line. We have guys that ride the same kind of flatbed garbage trucks in our subdivision. They’re a friendly group and they work under some tough conditions with very little pay I imagine. I used to hand out cans of cold Mountain Dew to our trash pick-up crew back in Illinois during the summer. Another group of friendly guys.
Our trash truck here in Tagum City is just like the ones in Michigan. The trash is taken to the land-fill. Just like in Michigan.
scott h
i am glad that your area has a daily trash fairy. so get ready, now there will be an influx of new residents to your area for this service, lol.
do you take your daily trash down to a telephone pole and it gets whisk away like scott h?
You guys are much more advanced in Mindanao, Gary. We’re just plain ole po’ folks here in the Visayans.
Nope…Just sit it outside the gate on the side of the road…Just like in Michigan!
Maria, I’m fairly certain I do not want to live in Iloilo now. It’s not really the lack of running water, or the garbage issues, but I will have no part of that crazy wacko army major b**ch that Dave had a go round with back in Aug 2010 at SM (I just uncovered his three-part post on that event). I don’t deal well with people like that so I’ll play the odds and move to Samar. I can only hope her sister doesn’t live there.
Randy, most of the city has daily running water I believe, but unfortunately our subdivision does not. That, plus the problem with the dogs, is making me reconsider whether we even stay in this subdivision once our lease is up in October. If we had a large water storage tank or a well as some folks do, it wouldn’t be a problem, but since our landlord is not going to make those improvements, we might be moving on. I would rather not move until we build our home, but that is still two years off.
As for the wacko major, Melinda said she passed us up one day at the SM City mall last year. The woman just glared at Melinda but said nothing. My asawa wisely did not tell me at the time because I would have backtracked and would have said something to the “lady” that could not be published here. But she is the exception in Iloilo rather than the rule. Lots of friendly people here and the vast majority are very friendly.
melinda handled that more wisely than i would have. i could not click on part 2,3. after residing for years in the states, i have learned to speak up and out to the point with loud volume if needed.
Melinda is a LOT smarter than me, maria. Ask any of our friends.
Dave and Randy,
My wife Meriam lived in Iloilo for 4 years and has many friends still living there. She says the people there are the nicest in the Philippines. Full-time water? NOT when she lived there and not for her friends that are still there. I don’t understand why people would want to live there. Water is basic to life!
You live in the Philippines Dave…the landlords here don’t do things like put up a water tank. The renter does that.
Meriam is correct, Gary. Lots of really friendly folks here. Always willing to help you.
Some of my expat friends located in Iloilo City do have water on a daily basis, Gary. We’re too far out to have that luxury. And yep, I wouldn’t expect our landlord to put up a water tank. When we move to our new location and build our home, probably outside of our current subdivision, we will have a well dug and have water tanks installed on the site.
Meriam’s school had water everyday also…but not all day. Just about 8 hours per day.
We’re supposed to have water eight hours the three days we do have water, Gary, but most days we only have 5-6 hours of water. I’m trying to talk “the boss” into moving back to Guimaras. No rent to pay. Plenty of water. And my own private CR again. Do you have any idea what it’s like sharing one CR with four women, three of them teen-agers? It’s brutal.
Well Dave sharing a CR is something I don’t have to do. The ladies get the downstairs CR and I called the masterbedroom CR. It is the bigger one too. I fully agree with you on moving back. It seems you were happy there.
Scott, Dave,
Sounds like there is too much labor in the way they pick up the garbage. But labor is cheap, so i guess its the best way. I remember we used to give the garbage men a bottle of liquor for Christmas or if they had a huge load to pick up. But that got stopped do to liability factors lol. Where you will be living Paranaque is not too far from where i will be living in Cavite. Have a nice day.
I was happy, Gary. I even miss my mother-in-law now. My dream home was the house we had back in Central Illinois before we moved. It was the first time I had my own private bathroom. I could spend an hour in there checking out the latest issue of Time magazine. As you well know, Gary, if the asawa is opposed to a plan, such as a move back to Guimaras, I will be hard-pressed to convince her that such a move is good for us in the long run. Guess I’ll have to turn up that “charm meter” of mine even more.
I believe our crew runs at five guys, PapaDuck. Our laborers that worked on our CR back in Guimaras were making a whopping P170 a day, about four bucks. They finally made a stop today, Tuesday and came into our yard to pick up plastic bags of garbage we had collected. The trash can was filled up a couple of days ago. But then again, my twin 19-year-old nieces were outside handing them the bags. Maybe that had something to do with it.
Dave, that’s why men peeing in public is an accepted and totally understood practice.
Dave, I was just making light of you and Melinda’s mall adventure. Nothing do to with garbage or water, as you know, I’m already moving to Samar.
I still hope she has no relatives there!
Hey Papa, I will be living in San Dionisio, not far from NAIA. I have noticed myself the tendency not to ues equipment, but the old fasioned manual labor. Not a lot of cement mixers seen at small construction sites lol
The more the merrier Maria lol
And I practiced it last night right outside our house, Randy. Only having one CR and five other folks in the house is not cutting it.
It’s OK, Randy. I personally do like living in Iloilo but moving back to Guimaras right now would make more economic sense. But the asawa is not going for that suggestion and is pulling a “Barney Fife” on the idea and nipping it in the bud.
I’ve never seen any cement trucks here, Scott h. Everybody around here just throws the cement and sand on the ground and mixes it with water.
Thats what I’m talking about Dave….Its more fun (and more work unless your retired
) In the Philippines lolol
I have seen cement mixers in Samar usally sitting behind fenced yards with flat tires and rusting. Not good for job security when using mechanized equipment. I have seen them working on road in Samar, come back year later and still working on same area.
As for trash pick-up before was only once a week on sunday now 4 times a week since new mayor took over. Wonder where he got the money from for extra pick-up.?
As for water usally on from 7 to 7 daily except when having problem with pumps. Reason I have 2 water tanks, one in ground under dirty kitchen and other on roof.
As for the CR problem, no problem as per the name of my favorite resturant in Cebu. When I built have 2 1/2 bathrooms . Down stairs has 1/2 and up stairs, master bath and the guest has shower which is separate from toilet so both can be used at same time if they are in hurry to go some where.
Sorry Dave about double post. Either your site or my computer has Duwendes playing with them.
Thanks for sharing your info, George. We actually had trash pick up TWO DAYS IN A ROW! A security guard from our subdivision was following the guys on his bike patrol to make sure they made their pick ups. I went over to the guard and he told me has orders to follow the garbage truck. Only two pick-ups total all last week.
We have been having a lot of rain so we haven’t had any problems with our water supply running out. We haven’t had a little talk with Jesus, our neighbor and drinking water guy, for almost two weeks.
But the CR? Looks like I’ll have to tough it out for another two years until our new house is built. My asawa wants to stay put and doesn’t want to make the move back to Guimaras where we had our own private CR.
No problem, George. That happens sometimes. Probably duwendes on my site.