２月２４日（木曜日）２０２２
ボストンは暫くぶりで前回と違った様子に驚くことがあります。その一つはゴミ収集。前は市が指定するケースにゴミを入れて家の前に置いておくと、収集車から男性が降りて車の後部にゴミを投げ込んで行きました。つまり運転手とゴミを投げ込む人、二人一組で仕事をしていたわけです。ところが今回はケースの代わりに私の胸あたりまである巨大な黒い容器。
今日はその収集日ということで一体どんな風にゴミを入れるのか興味津々でした。主人の声で慌てて外に出た時はすでに我が家のゴミは終わってお隣も済んで、走って後を追いかけていると、驚いたことに運転手の男性が車を止めて出てきて「どうしたんだ？」と私に近づいてきました。どうやら私が収集に問題があって後を追いかけてきたと思ったらしいのです。「いえいえ、どうやってゴミを持っていくか興味があって写真を撮りたいんです。」と私。運転手サン「Oh,sorry」と戻っていきましたが、私のほうこそ仕事を中断させて申し訳ない気持ちと収集車の後ろをカメラを持って走る姿は不可解で驚くのも無理なかろうと自分のただならぬ姿にしばらく苦笑。
週一回普通のゴミ（生ゴミを含めリサイクルできないもの全部）でリサイクルが月2回とのこと。運転手一人でトラックからアームを出し大きなゴミ箱を持ち上げてゴミを入れ、それをまた戻して次へとやっているのが上手で感心しました。
There are times I am surprised at the fact that Boston is different from the last time I was here. One of them is the garbage collection. Before, we put the garbage in the bin which was provided by the city, and a man from the garbage collecting truck picked up the bin and threw the garbage into the truck. It means there were two people, driver and pick up person , working together. This time, each family has a huge trashcan instead of a small bin.
Today was collecting day and I was very curious about how they pick up the bin and take the garbage away. Since my husband let me know the truck was coming, I rushed to get out of my house with my smartphone, but the truck had already finished picking up our garbage as well as the neighbors'. I ran after the truck so I could take pictures of how the truck works. Surprisingly the truck stopped and the driver came outside and said to me "What's wrong ?". He might have thought that I was running after him to tell that there was something wrong with his job. I said "No,no, I just wanted to take pictures because I was very interested in how you take the garbage away." "Oh, sorry" said the driver and got back to the truck. I felt sorry to stop his work and I laughed at myself because it must have looked like an unusual thing to do when I ran after the garbage truck with my camera and it made him surprised.
The garbage truck comes once a week to take the regular trash once or twice a month for the recycled one. It was really amazing that the driver handled the arm from the truck very well to pick up the big garbage bin and after throwing in the garbage he retracted the arm, then went to the next garbage bin quickly.
