Iama garbage man. I pick up garbage paper and co-mingle (bottles and cans ) for 1500 houses each week

Do you have any idea how you are idolized by young children? My son is almost 2 years old and has been saying 'garbage truck' about 20x a day for 8months. We eat outside on the porch on trash day and watch the cans get collected. We watch videos of garbage trucks on YouTube, yes his favorite Xmas gift was a garbage truck. It's quite an obsession. Just curious if you guys have any idea how much some children love the garbage truck. The firetrucks are well liked; the garbage truck is god.

Edit: butterthumbs- typos

Yep I must waive to 30 kids a day. I have so many parents tell me were rock stars to there children

Are you married or have a girlfriend? How hard is it to go out and meet people and when you tell them that you are a trash man how do they react?

It's not very hard at all. I've been married for five years but nobody minds the fact that were garbage men. My single co-workers have no problem getting the ladies.

Ever take something home that some else threw out? If so, what are some of the cooler things you have found?

Yea I have my coffee table. I find mostly copper products and sell them to scrap yards though. I can make like 3-5 g a year doing that

plumber here. my coworkers and I collect copper, and we get a lot of money from it.

Hell yes I get whatever I can find but there is a lot of competition now people driving around but I still do allright most of my money comes from ecrtonic plugs eg. Back of tv or toaster that plugs into the wall.

So do you go through the trash to find these things?

I'm just curious as to how you know these things are in there.

Also did you ever watch Arthur? He had a friend named Francine and her dad was the garbage man. There was an episode about Careers and she was embarrassed because of what her dad did, but when they went to the Dump to see him work he showed them a playground he had made out of stuff he'd collected and everyone thought he was so cool.

They just pop out I have an eye for it know. And no didn't see author. I don't go digging through the garbage to find it just if I see it

I forgot I also had a 55 in hd projecter tv I brought home it worked for 5 years

Do you get used to the smell?

Yes and no. The normal stuff yes but in the heat of the summer and someone puts loose garbage in a can and it gets covered in maggots you can never get used to that

Grossest thing you've had to pick up?

A blod soaked carpet from a suicide. We did it as a favor for one of my other bosses

"Suicide"

Did you work for Tony Soprano?

No I wish

After a piece of garbage goes into your truck, how likely is it that someone would be able to trace that trash back to me?

None it gets mixed with hundreds of tons of other garbage then burned

What is the best/worst part of your job? What do people do that makes your job easier/harder?

The best part of my Job is definitely my fredom. I get to work In the morning and I go on my truck and do my rout don't have to deal with bosses or answer questions. The worst is 32.5 degre rain by time you get home you can't stop shivering. What people do to make my job harder is just throwing out junk stops in a random pile. If you have 20 2by4's just put the all in the same direction I don't think that's to hard.

Good guy garbage man answers all the questions! Thanks for this eventhough I dont live in the USA it is very interesting to read through this :)
greetings from switzerland.

Thank you I've been waiting to do this till I had enuff time

Whats the strangest thing you're found in someone's garbage?

That's hard to say. I've found sex toys and porno but besides that I don't know.

Love notes and pics of people doing funny things

Wholly shit I forgot about this one lady that wiped her ass and thew the paper in the trash. What is wrong with people

Have you ever been accosted by any animals hiding out in a garbage can?

Picking up dumpsters you find a lot of racoons that scares you at first glance but there actually pritty cool we help them out of the dumpsters when there stuck. Sometimes when your picking up cans you'll have a squirrel run up you arm that scares the shit out of you and just feels gross

have you ever fell off the truck?

Yea my rain gear got stuck on the side of the truck so my legs stayed up and my top went down and I landed on my shoulder. Thank god it was not my head

How much do you get paid?

For 2012 I made $75,000 with overtime. I work for a township so I also snow plow and huricane clean up the last 2 years. I work in Westchester ny.

I've always wondered this - common urban myth (or truth?) is that garbage men/women have very high incomes. Is $75,000 with overtime a substantial amount (objectively speaking) in Westerchester NY? I apologise if the question is personal - it's just that I've always wondered. Also - do you see yourself doing this long term?

Thanks for the AMA!

I not living ritch its a good income but I still have to/choose to work a second job

oh wow thats a lot more than i was expecting. Do you get benefits as well?

Yes I get benifits

I do very well in x-mas tips somewere between 6-7 g and I'm not even close to the top truck in that department.

Do you prefer the label "trash man," "garbage man," or "sanitation engineer?"

I don't mind either way

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Teen love notes they get so funny

What's the nicest thing someone has done for you on the job?

I have one lady that brings me bottled water every day I ho to het house (3days a week) and frozen in the hot summer

Is one person's trash truly another man's treasure?

I love rooting ( getting precious metals out of the garbage)

Is there a difference in the trash between poor neighborhoods and nicer ones? Do the people differ?

Not really but in rich or poor but you have scumbags in each.

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1. No more drugs we get random tests but back in the day you would be drunk every day

2 yes I called the aspca on a lady that threw out a bag of dead cats some pregnant every week for a month.

3 20 %

4 . All the time I don't meen to but I have to get the snow off the road. (If you call the town and make a big enuff stink thell give you a new one)

5 . Yea they get pissed they throw stuff at you like shovels and snow but I have a job to do. And if you just waited for me to be finnished you wouldent havr to redo it all the time

Why was she throwing out dead cats?

I never got a reason for that the county called me two moths later and said the cats didn't have rabies that's all I heard

For recyclables, I go through a lot of trouble to break up every box. I also put collapsed boxes inside one another to create as compact a stack as possible. I see neighbors who don't give a shit and just throw whole boxes into their recyclable bin. Am I making my garbage collectors' lives any easier by doing this, or do they throw the whole contents of the recyclables in the same place and it gets sorted later?

Also, am I creating an issue by putting collapsed boxes inside one another?

That actually helps a lot its so much better if I can grab your stop in one shot trying to fumble with loose boxes just sucks. Paper is the worst day of the week for that reason

Do you feel like the job of a garbageman is underappreciated?

No not at all we know a lot of the people on our run

Do you have any funny stories to share about your time while on the job?

Yea I just don't know where to start. Having a lady cry at me saying I broke her cans meanwhile it was someone else. It's just a fun job all over everything is a joke

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Yea I have let the bigger ones run the handles ( to crush the gatbage) and I do wave to kids all day long

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Why not most of us are nice guys. We get to break things all day great stress realif

How does everyone's treatment of you vary from neighborhood to neighborhood?

Everybody in our town loves us well take aneything for our residents

What was the worst day you've ever had as a garbageman? What was the best?

3 in of slushy snow every time I took a step it felt like my feet were going to fall off. So cold

How long do you work for each day? Do you empty throughout the course of the day or only at the beginning/end?

I usually work about 5 hours a day and dump 2 times on avarage

What are your hours?

7 am till I'm done. Then I go home. around 12:30 - 2:00

How much on average do you guys get around Christmas in the form of tips? We never know how much to give. Also do the recycling guys get tips too?

The average tip is 30. Sixty is good and aneything above that is great. I have one guy that tips 200 and a business that tips 300. So far this year I made 6400 in tips

...people typically tip the garbage man? I didn't know that was the norm.

Some places you cant . I know NYC the guys will get fired for taking them.

Is there anything we, the ones with garbage, can do to make your job easier? Is there a specific way some households put out their rubbish that makes your job just that little bit easier?

Just make sure you tie your bags shut it sucks when there loose and all the garbage falls on the street

Do most people bag their garbage properly?

Yes for the most part

I've always heard this job is pretty good; decent pay, minimal supervision, and probably some pretty interesting finds from time to time. So how does one become a garbage man?

It's very political you have to know someone on the inside or work there for 3+ summers and get luckey to get hired.

Where does the garbage in your district(s) go? Is it all dumped in one landfill?

We have a garbage to energy plant so it gets burned to make electricity then the ashes go to the landfill

What do you think we can do to help encourage more people to recycle?

Over the years the amount of trash I pick up has gone down and the recycling has gone way up. So people are on the right track

Ever find some fuckin Sweet trash? Like the kinda trash where you're not sure if It's accidentally in the trash or they're just rich as Fuck throwing away Sweet valuable stuff in the trash?

Yea my coffee table, tv ,lawn mower and lots of stuff I can't remember at the moment.

Do you use one of those trucks that uses a mechanical hand to pick up trashcans and toss their garbage in, or do you do it by hand?

No I do it by hand we have 2 trucks with the tipers on them but those crews don't use them because its to slow

Are there many garbagewomen out there, or is the field mainly male-dominated?

I've never seen one. It's a hard job you'd have to get the right woman

Have you ever listened to this song, and do you consider it an anthem?

Never heard of it till now

Are you solely a garbageman, or do you work other jobs as well?

I actually work for my family's farm market when not on the garbage truck

Does the smell of garbage follow you home? How difficult is it to wash that smell out of your clothes?

Not sure I dont smell it nit ill have to ask my wife

If I wanted to tip a garbageman, what is the best way to go about doing so?

In recent years there has been more and more people stealing the tips. So best bet is giving it strait to them but hiding it under the lid works also

What if you guys throw it out ? :(

This time a year were looking for it but tape it to the under part of the lid

Do you ever find illegal things in the garbage? What do you do about it if it happens?

Like pot bags bongs empty coke bags yea all the time. I don't care I'm not the police if I didn't get tested I'd be doing it to I just throw them away

What makes you angry the most when you are out on your route? Do you ever have to fix things just so you'll be able to load them up?

The thing that makes me the most angry is when its the same people with tons of junk infront of their house every week. I understand people have to get rid of stuff and that's my job but some people take advantage

Would you say that you need extensive training and many hours of practise? Days spent studying the rules and regulations required for the job? Trips to work related seminars to understand the intricacies of collecting rubbish?

...

Or would you say you just pick it up as you go along?

No training just learn as you go. Fist two weeks you go to work you go home and go to sleep you need your energy for the next day. Learning what not to put in the truck you'll lern as you go you never have two rookies on the truck at the same time.

What would you not put in the truck? What would you do with it?

Ac's they have frion in it metal. And tires aneything else for the most part goes

Have you anything morbid, like a dead body, while on the job?

No not me but my friends uncle who works closer to nyc found a body twice. I've seen someone get knocked out by a piece of wood and people loosing controle of their body because of dehydration

First, thanks for answering more questions than most AMAers do. Secondly, what in your opinion is something we can do to make our local garbage man's life easier.

Just make it so we can grab and go. We just want to get done

Would a garbage man like it if I brought him a case of beer? I think garbage men are real-ass dudes.

Yea but we would rather money. There's a couple of us that don't drink anymore if you give us money we ka. Buy our own beer if we want.

What led you to this job? Do you plan to stay put for a while or are you looking for other work? Also, what town are you working in?

Yes I plan on staying. I just fell into it

• Is it true that you have no access to washrooms and have to resort to a tin can ?
• Did anyone ever tip you?
• Does your job make you feel so mad that you want to quit it everyday or did you learn not to mind it?

1. We usually go to the bathroom in the woods
2. Yes I do very well in tips
3. No I love my job. Every garbage man I know does also

Do you need any special licenses or training to become a garbageman?

No but if you want to drive you need a class b CDL with air breaks

How many houses do you service in a single route? Do you pick up the recycling as well?

Garbage I have 2 routs of about 750 houses on Monday and Tuesday then wendsday I do both runs for paper and thursday for co-mingle and Friday's are bulk days.

What do people seem to do really often that bugs you/other garbagemen? I want to know if I do anything wrong when putting the cans out and disposing of my trash.

Fucking pizza boxes. They get stuck in the can and it keeps the garbage from coming out.

How would a teenager go about getting a summer job as a garbageman or assistant?

If your town does the garbage pick up go to the town hall and get an aplication. As lonf as your willing to work hard you'll be fine

Im 21 and been wanting to be a garbage man but no ones hiring. I want to be a driver.

Is the job hard?

What are my chances after getting into a minor accident? (He hit me)

I only have a high school diploma. Do I need some college?

First the job is very hard at the beginning but you adjust fast my first two weeks I went home and went right to sleep for the next day. Bring lots of liquids and you'll be fine. Don't worry about the accident most of us have had them. Getting hired is tricky just keep puting in application's thell eventually give you a shot. I know people and it took me 3 years working part time (4 months every summer) to get hired.

Who employs you? Is it the local waste management division?

A town itself

any tips for us to make your job easier?

If you have 4 empty corn cans you don't have to put it out every week. Wait till you have a decent amount. That is one of the biggest things that piss me off.

that doesnt sound too difficult. thank you friend and i appreciate your service.

Thank you

In my neighborhood, well city, they gave us standard issue trash cans and recycle cans. They have a metal bar mid way so an automatic arm picks it up and dumps it on top. It's somewhat automated and reduced the work load of 3 guys per truck to one (on usual pick up days).

From the looks of it, do you still manually pickup cans? Does the automatic nature of the arm ruin the "community" aspects when you greet the people on your route? If you were to use automatic arms, could you still look in trash for valuables?

Edit: looks like you answered the automatic arm question. The others still stand!

Yes the automatic had would affect the community relations but I take junk as I go along so my town woud not be able to do that. And yes I find most of my copper at the bottom of the cans because we have a lit of people driving around taking ways at the top

Who sorts the co-mingle and how?

I'm not really sure I gets transported down county

What did you do before you started working as a garbage collector?

I worked for the highway department part time bit since I've been our of collage I've been a garbage man

I pick up Recycling in VA. We have around 1500 houses each day, we start at 5am and finish around 6pm each day.

What is your longest route?

Our longest rot is 99 miles a diferrnt truck. Do you use a regular garbage truck though? And we have 3 men crews

I always wondered if you got tips or you relied on kick-backs from guys that pick up garbage

I got several questions up my sleeve but the question I wonder most about and I'm sure you've been asked that ALOT:

How much money do you make? I've heard in my entire childhood that Garbage Men makes shit tons of money, is this something you can confirm?

And the second question:

Did you dropped out of college? Consider the fact that this is an AMA not a AMAA, i automatically assume that you can take sensetive questions like that (Which i respect). And for the last question, How did your parents react to the fact that you became a Garbage Man? Did they respect it or did they do as many parents does, be butthurt about it?

Yea I make 75,000 +/- depending overtime. And I graduated a 2 year collage with an associate degre and I failed out or another collage after that ( I drank way to much)

My parents like the fact I'm A garbage man. If let's me work for them after I get out of work

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They pay their taxes so it is a right but for the most part their very greatful. We go out of our way to make the happy and help them out whenever however can. Some of our older resedents well bring the can back to the house and suff like that

Monday and Tuesday yes but the rest of the days I wait till 12:30 or after I don't know what a Cushman is. And yes I've had glass shoot and cut under my eye. I had a mini railroad tie go 20 ft in the air and almost hit me ( I was in s full sprint as Doon as it started going up) its a daily occurance just most of the time it plastic that can't hurt you

What happens when garbagemen get older? Are there 60-year-old garbagemen still riding the trucks?

Yea we have a 55 and 60 year olds working on the truck. It's something you get used to. It'd not the norm though usually you become a driver or move to the highway department.