Garbage Pickup Announced with Classical Music!

Garbage trucks in Taiwan have a curious way of announcing their presence: by loudly playing classical music standards like Beethoven’s Für Elise. It’s not unlike the bleating of ice cream trucks in the US every summer, universally recognized and calling people out of their homes and to the curb.

Although this has been going on for some time, it recently came to wider attention as several videos began appearing online.

The musical garbage truck scheme began in the 1980s when Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration was seeking a novel way to eliminate the vermin and odors that plagued the country's designated outdoor public trash disposal areas. This way, residents are notified to bring their rubbish directly to the trucks and the trash never touches the ground (unlike Mister Softee trucks, which seem to appear out of nowhere on hot summer days, the musical garbage trucks run on a set schedule).  More