About my trash men

I can tell you I wouldn't want to have their job-- and I'm glad they do it, and hope they earn a decent wage! I recently moved across the country-- where I used to live, the cans came from the refuse company and were all a standard size with some kind of "rail" on the side which fit an attachment "lift" on the garbage truck, so all the guys had to do was hook up the can and it was emptied automatically. They never touched anything except the handle on the can, and the cans were all wheeled. In my new town (which is much smaller) it's just a single guy driving the truck, and non-standard cans. And the guy stops the truck, gets out, goes to the back and dumps the cans into the back of the truck manually-- it seems like a HUGE amount of work for a single person, not to mention that he has no equipment to help him with heavy cans. I try to bag all the really nasty stuff so the can doesn't get gross.

Your lucky to have a trach man! I live in the boondocks and we have to take our trash to the dump! But anyway back to your discussion if I was in your shoes I would of felt bad also if they hand to handle my trash like that. Maybe you could try bagging it for them?

well i live in a middle cultured state here in my country the trashmen came to houses and just take rubbish out by there hands without wearing gloves they even clean the gutters here without wearing any special clothes or using machine or even wearing gloves.

I didnt know that either. I thought they stopped that because they could get stuck with a needle. The trash collectors that come to my house have a lift and dont touch the trash at all.

I work for my towns transfer station and our town's curbside pick up is done by a private contractor. by town ordinance, the trash has to be in a town bag that can be purchased for a modest cost and every recyclable has to be seperated out. They have to toss the bags by hand into a cage truck almost 7 feet over the gate so the company has put a weight limit on the bag of 40 pounds. I see the work these guys do and they bust their buts to do it. But you would be suprise the ammount of calls we get complaining when their trash is left because it was too heavy. It's a dirty and often thankless job as is mine at the recpetion center itself. Next time any of you in haste decide to stuff your bag full to 100 pounds or leave it covered in slime, remember there is a hard working individual who has to deal with the mess. 4cuteboys, your sympathy is greatly apreciated and i wish there were alot more courtious people like you. :) Thank you.

For use we roll our trash can to the curb and then they come and pick it up with their machine. All they do is lift it and it's dumped in the truck. We're pretty messy with trash and junk too but if they had to use their hands I know I would be a lot neater. ;)

we have recycling boxes for glass ,papers and cans and they lift them but we wash them all first , w have 2 large bins on wheels for cardboard and general rubbish and the truck lifts them automatically , I wouldn't like any one having to handle mine either Yuck !! I didn't think they had to do that anywhere nowadays , not very hygienic is it ? xx

Ours toss the bags and empty the bins into the truck by picking them up and dumping them into the back end, which is then squished together with an automated system. While it's kind of gross to have to pick up the cans, they don't have to actually 'touch' the stuff inside. I'm not sure why yours would either? Why can't they just shake it into the truck? And ours wear gloves all the time.

Our company has both. And I guess they must take turns using it because we don't have the same truck every week. Sometimes we have the ones that do it by hand and sometimes we have the robotic arm one. Guess they just haven't bought enough trucks to cover all the routes yet. I keep my cans pretty clean. But, I'm sure a lot of people don't. And I'm sure they are dealing with some nasty, nasty, stuff. But, they knew what they were getting into when they took the job. I just do my best to make their jobs easier when I can. I wouldn't be too upset by this though, I'm sure they forgive ya;-)

Hmm, I'm actually not sure how they do it! We always put our stuff in bags, I don't think we even use bins much...so we never really have that problem.

Here in nyc they still do it the old fashioned way; with their hands.

Here the men pick up the garbage cans and dump whats in them into the garbage truck. Its supposed to be in bags inside the garbage cans. I am annoyed because I put my garbage out on friday night like I do every week and the garbage men collected everyones garbage except mine. I guess they forgot mine so I will just leave it out there until next week when I add two more garbage bags or garbage on top of it. It shouldnt stink because its so cold outside.