On another note. Yesterday was the first day that I was actually in charge of taking out my own trash (in the past, the construction workers took care of it while I was at work). This is how trash pick up works here. Trash pick up is a public service. The trucks drive through the neighborhoods with no specific schedule. The only way you know whether or not to bring your trash out into the street is if you hear the trash guys ringing their specific bell. At the sound of the the bell, the doors of every house open and out emerges your neighbors, that you never see otherwise, to gather on the corner with all of their trash (I never thought the only time the neighbors would get together would be over trash). Then I watched in amazement at what the trash guys do. I was told that there is no system for recycling here in Mexico, but this appears to be false. The trash guys tear open every single trash bag with their bare hands and separate out glass, cardboard, paper, and anything that looks like it might be able to be resold. Imagine that this was your job, to go through everyone elses trash all day long, everyday. Yuck! My guess is that if the trash guys know someone that runs a recycling business, they can bring the glass, cardboard, and paper to them. The money they receive probably goes directly to the trash guys. The trash guys probably also have friends that buy the resellable stuff from them and then turn it around and sell it in the markets. I guess you could call it the black market for trash.
Tuesday, January 8
Impuestos and The Trash Black Market
After much consideration, I decided to make my home in Mexico really nice with beautiful handcrafted furniture that I will take back with me to the US. This means that when I move back to the US, I will have to hire movers. There is one piece of art work that I left back in the states when I drove down here because it was just too big to fit in my laundry basket, which was holding all of my other pieces of art. Once I decide that I would be hiring movers to move back to the US, I decided that I really wanted to have this one piece of art work with me while in Mexico. While home over Christmas, I sent the beautiful photo to myself. The packaging and the shipping cost me an arm and a leg but I decided to go ahead and send it anyway. . . Well FedEx called me yesterday to inform me that the Mexican government somehow thought that they needed to charge me a $40 importation tax (impuesto=tax) on this piece of art work. What? I crossed the border with a car full of things that should have been charged an importation tax and I didn't have to pay a cent. Now I get charge a $40 importation tax on something that shouldn't have an importation tax. Oh well, I guess it is the way things go in Mexico. Here is a lovely picture of my Bass Harbor, Maine photo with the expensive FedEx box it came in.
On another note. Yesterday was the first day that I was actually in charge of taking out my own trash (in the past, the construction workers took care of it while I was at work). This is how trash pick up works here. Trash pick up is a public service. The trucks drive through the neighborhoods with no specific schedule. The only way you know whether or not to bring your trash out into the street is if you hear the trash guys ringing their specific bell. At the sound of the the bell, the doors of every house open and out emerges your neighbors, that you never see otherwise, to gather on the corner with all of their trash (I never thought the only time the neighbors would get together would be over trash). Then I watched in amazement at what the trash guys do. I was told that there is no system for recycling here in Mexico, but this appears to be false. The trash guys tear open every single trash bag with their bare hands and separate out glass, cardboard, paper, and anything that looks like it might be able to be resold. Imagine that this was your job, to go through everyone elses trash all day long, everyday. Yuck! My guess is that if the trash guys know someone that runs a recycling business, they can bring the glass, cardboard, and paper to them. The money they receive probably goes directly to the trash guys. The trash guys probably also have friends that buy the resellable stuff from them and then turn it around and sell it in the markets. I guess you could call it the black market for trash.
On another note. Yesterday was the first day that I was actually in charge of taking out my own trash (in the past, the construction workers took care of it while I was at work). This is how trash pick up works here. Trash pick up is a public service. The trucks drive through the neighborhoods with no specific schedule. The only way you know whether or not to bring your trash out into the street is if you hear the trash guys ringing their specific bell. At the sound of the the bell, the doors of every house open and out emerges your neighbors, that you never see otherwise, to gather on the corner with all of their trash (I never thought the only time the neighbors would get together would be over trash). Then I watched in amazement at what the trash guys do. I was told that there is no system for recycling here in Mexico, but this appears to be false. The trash guys tear open every single trash bag with their bare hands and separate out glass, cardboard, paper, and anything that looks like it might be able to be resold. Imagine that this was your job, to go through everyone elses trash all day long, everyday. Yuck! My guess is that if the trash guys know someone that runs a recycling business, they can bring the glass, cardboard, and paper to them. The money they receive probably goes directly to the trash guys. The trash guys probably also have friends that buy the resellable stuff from them and then turn it around and sell it in the markets. I guess you could call it the black market for trash.
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