Studs Turkel did a book called "Working "years ago. He interviewed people from all walks of life. Athletes, stockbrokers, doctors, engineers etc. The most satisfied were the garbage men. They did physical work, could get off early if they worked quickly and did not take the job home mentally.
That’s a good question, and one I never thought to ask friend’s dad. IANAL and all that, but in this particular county, if you put it on the road to be trashed, it was up for grabs to anyone who wanted to haul it away. I always assumed this applied to garbage men as well.
I remember hearing somewhere that one of the main problems with being a garbage man is the fact the people often throw out dangerous stuff – broken glass, pointy things, jagged bits of metal, corrosive chemicals – without much regard to who may be handling it later, so injuries are common.
Back before sports here turned professional, rugby, and rugby league player often worked on the rubbish trucks. It was great training, the truck would drive down the centre of the street and the 2 or 3 guys on the back would sprint to the footpath and back with the cans. If bags were out, they’d just toss them to a guy at the truck. When I’d walk the main drag at 7am, and they were emptying the public waste baskets, it was amazing watching them. They would start with an empty can, run to the first basket, swap the empty with the full, run to the truck, empty the basket, and sprint ahead to the next basket, where they’d do the swap again, repeat.
The runners would get a break as the truck went off to empty. I guess the runs were set, so the faster they worked, the earlier they finished.
I wonder how efficient/faster the new system is with only the driver. Drive 4 metres, stop, get out, empty can, get in, drive 4 metres, repeat…
My buddy was a garbage person for a summer. He smelt like SHIT everyday after work. Besides that, it paid well and he could afford school. He had no other complaints than the usual “stupid bastards leaving (insert offending garbage) on the curb”. He also got a nice collection of golf clubs, amongst other stuff, by retrieving it from other people’s trash.
Just thought I’d randomly take this opportunity to share a drawing of mine - The Garbagemen.
Dude, they look so…menacing. Do you have some deep-seated anxiety about the sanitation industry?
Hello. I know this post is old but i found it trying to look up trashman jobs on google. I currently work for my Township as part-time since 2006. they have a highway and a sanitation department. I do both. almost all of august I was on trash. personally me, i love doing trash but its the whole im not full time so they should rotate all the part-timers where i work and give us a break. Its a great job if you dont mind the work and working in almost all types of weather, at least we do here. heres a few things that i personally dont like; the obvious one the smell. in the summer you see maggots in 90% of the cans you have to pickup and hope nothing gets on you, the biggest hate for me is working with someone who doesnt help when you have a heavy can or more then one thing to put in the hopper and lastly the weather. you get paid good as a full-time laborer and more if you’re a driver here and the benefits here are good plus you get every holiday off and even your bday off. paid vacations and sick time.
I used to love dumpster-diving with friends at the end of every year. In retrospect, it’s a miracle none of us got tetanus.
As a general matter, garbage on the curb is abandoned property. Garbage men can keep it - so can you, if you get to it first. Also, the police are perfectly free to look through it - they don’t need a warrant, or even articulable suspicion, to examine abandoned property.
And, of course, you should really keep trash in sealed containers, lest it attract zombies.