You may remember a few months ago I posted a blog about garbage cart men. I would put a link here, but that's too much work and I don't feel like it. Check the archives if you really want to read it. My friend Dustin, a fellow teacher, also blogged recently about the eskicis and recylcle-cis that wander around trawling the dumpsters for various items.
I alos mentioned that one group of men (dubbed "recycle-cis" by me and pronounced "recycle-jeez" in English) have dolly-like trolleys with huge canvas one-ton sugar bags that they fill with either cardboard, plastic, cans or glass by going therough the dumpsters. Istanbulites (is that the word? Istanbullians, Istanbullers....? Istanbullies!!!!) don't have any individual recycling programme, where you put your garbage in separate bags. However, one cannot say that Istanbul doesn't recycle. Judging by the number of these guys one can see in any given neighbourhood on any given day, I would guess that Istanbul probably recycles more stuff than any city I've ever lived in. I'm pretty sure almost every piece of glass, plastic, metal and paper that can be recycled is enthusiastically collected by these guys. They all seem to know the schedule for garbage collection (if one actually exists) or maybe they set it! I guarantee that within minutes of the recycle-cis leaving your neighbourhood, the garbage truck will show up. They're magical!
Anyway, what really inspired me to write this blog was that the other night while walking home along Hasanpasha street, two recycle-cis ran past at lightning speed with theur trolleys in tow. It looked like some kind of old-fashioned night-time chariot race... It was so hilarious! But maybe you had to be there....
It's still Ramazan.
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