<p>In San Diego</p>
<p>[Automated</a> Refuse Collection | Environmental Services Department](<a href=“http://www.sandiego.gov/environmental-services/geninfo/faq/automated.shtml]Automated”>Automated Refuse Collection | Environmental Services | City of San Diego Official Website)</p>
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Here in Mob Wives land, people don’t wait and either make the garbagemen jump out of the way or hit them. Or beat them up. Two of my husband’s friends have been hit by cars in the last two years. One was 32 and is now permanently disabled, but didn’t have enough time on the job to qualify for the full pension/benefits.</p>
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<p>I’m sure they’re expensive to buy and maintain! In our area, there are different (city-owned) cans for green waste, recyclables, and general trash. There are three different grabber trucks, one for each waste stream. Sounds expensive, but the city saves by keeping waste out of landfill, and makes money on recycling. The cans have built-in wheels and covers, which makes it easy to move them from the side of our house to curbside, even when fully loaded. </p>
<p>When I was a kid, we had old dented metal cans that had to be moved curbside using a dolly–too heavy for anyone to move by themselves. The trash trucks had one guy hanging off of a platform on the back (which I still think looked like fun). Those guys had ENORMOUS biceps from hefting those cans. No fun whatsoever in bad weather.</p>
<p>Slitheytove, we can’t agree on anything in this city with regard to garbage. Currently, much of the city’s garbage is trucked or barged to New Jersey for disposal because no one wants the garbage processed or disposed of in their neighborhood. This all makes it much more expensive than it should be because the cost of gas for all of these long trips is staggering, as well as the wear and tear on the trucks. It’s been tied up in litigation and politics since 2000.</p>
<p>At one time recycling was profitable for municipalities,no longer…still probably cheaper to recycle then dispose in regular waste stream,but the days of GETTING money for recyclng is over…i can’t remember the last time i saw a paper drive,lol…</p>
<p>We still separate out recyclables here and they are trucked to different facilities in New Jersey. But the fact is that we only recycle so that people who don’t follow the rules can be fined and generate revenue for the city. Most of the waste is not, in fact, recycled.</p>
<p>When I last lived in a place that had public garbage collection, I discovered that there was an easy way to get rid of anything.</p>
<p>Just leave a six-pack on top of it.</p>
<p>I got rid of I-don’t-know how many tons of horsehair plaster I was tearing out of my house that way. Don’t make the bags too heavy, add some beer, and … gone.</p>
<p>Depending on where we lived, we’ve had both kinds of trucks. But even the grabber ones had a crew of two people because one had to be available to turn cans around the right way, move them away if too close to a vehicle, make sure they didn’t roll into the street when put down, etc. Speedwise, it is about the same.</p>
<p>In WA, we got issued a huge can for recycling and you had to buy your own small one and were limited to one can of trash a week. If you had more than that, you had to buy special bags from the city. And they would leave your trash if it had a lot of recyclables in it. They didn’t have to be sorted, just tossed into the big can.</p>
<p>Our city uses a company for trash pick-up and it’s paid as a part of your utility bill each month. A couple of years ago each house was issued a can on wheels. Everybody was given a big one (96 gallon?), but those who wanted it could swap it out for a smaller (like 48 gallon maybe). The can stays with the house so when you move you leave it there. They pick up trash twice a week…</p>
<p>When they were first distributing the cans they had them all loaded on a big trailer and had a handful of workers behind dropping them off at each driveway and a couple of guys writing down numbers for each one.</p>
<p>Last week or the week before we were issued a smaller can with a blue lid. They are starting recycling in a couple of weeks. Any recycling (paper, aluminum, plastic, glass) you just drop in there and they’ll pick it up. </p>
<p>Everything is automated. It’s a little bit difficult sometimes on our street because it’s a one-way street so the truck has to come down the street forward to pick up one side, back all the way up and turn around, back up and then pull forward to pick up the other side.</p>
<p>One of my former neighbors at my old house was a township employee for a bit…he pretty much bragged to us that he spent the last 1 - 1.5 hours of his workday, hiding in the park near the tennis courts. He was damn lucky to get that job as an alcoholic, pot smoking slacker. It didn’t take long for his supervisor to catch on and when he failed a drug test, that was the end of his township career</p>
<p>The manager did his job.</p>
<p>*Haven’t seen a garbage man lift a can in years…all firms use the grab arm…it is NOT that slow,once the driver gets experienced with it…And less costly over time as there are no injuries,disabilities etc from those lifting cans…manpower is reduced also
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<p>I haven’t either. I haven’t seen a garbage employee “touch” trash in decades. They drive the trucks…and they ONLY touch a can if it happens to get set down wrong by the arm…then the driver jumps out and “rights” the EMPTY can. </p>
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The grabber things are very expensive to buy and maintain, and they also don’t put the garbage cans back where they are supposed to be and sort garbage from various recycling matters.
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<p>??? The grabber system often involves different types of cans…black (garbage), green (recycle), and brown (for lawn stuff). </p>
<p>Can’t remember when my California city started using the “grab arm” …maybe sometime in the 70s?? I know that my Alabama city has used the “grab arm” for a very long time too. How is it that the “backwards South” has advanced farther in the area of garbage pick up? ;)</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids, the trash has to be sorted here among paper, bottles, plastic and regular garbage which go into different trucks, so someone has to decide what to pick up in each particular truck (or half truck).</p>
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The unions are stronger here. They own city.</p>
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<p>Work as a nurse in a hospital or similar environment. Many days you don’t get lunch-in a twelve hour shift, there were countless days where I literally never even had time to get a bathroom break. Surf the internet during work hours? Laughable. Leave early-not happening.</p>
<p>It’s better where I work now. They actually make us take a lunch break-30 minutes-but the rest of the day is pretty much the same. Not a single opportunity to surf the net. I know, I know, no one forced me to be a nurse.</p>
<p>BTW, why the arguing about garbage men/collection when the OP specifically stated these are not garbage men he’s talking about? And what did he decide to do about it, if anything?</p>
<p>Our little town is also very strict about sorting recycle and trash , but it is still manual. They will not lift my oversized cans so I drag it all out in the bags and recycle containers the morning of pick up. Don’t want animals to get into it. What irks me is when they pick up the cans and bottles and drop some of it in the street and just leave it there…they know and and ignore it</p>
<p>I’m all for employing people over switching to trucks with the arm , but the guys have to show a little courtesy to the residents who will ultimately have to vote that will affect their jobs</p>
<p>*Mom2collegekids, the trash has to be sorted here among paper, bottles, plastic and regular garbage which go into different trucks, so someone has to decide what to pick up in each particular truck (or half truck).</p>
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<p>Yes, trash is sorted here as well…by the homeowner, who puts the right type of trash in the right color container. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what you’re saying. Are you saying that the homeowners put out 6 or 7 different cans that all look alike, but have different contents (one for paper, one for glass, one for plastic, one for garbage, one for yard clippings, etc) and then someone has to look inside each one and say, “Ok this can be picked up by this truck?” If so, that’s got to be one of the most inefficient (and expensive) jobs program ever.</p>
<p>That’s the point of having colored cans.</p>
<p>Until recently, our town fees included backyard pickup - trash collection that came up the driveway, as far away as the backyard. They wheel the cans down to the truck and back. Some people around here were up in arms about the fact that now that is an extra fee for this! Recycling is on a different day, different trucks.</p>
<p>If a DPW truck were parked on our street like that on a regular basis, I don’t think it would be an problem for too long. Around here, complaints of this nature are anonymous - the town will investigate, but they won’t reveal the identity of the caller.</p>
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We aren’t allowed to have 6 or 7 cans. That is a ticketable offense. Most garbage is put out in bags (6 are allowed) or is tied up. If a truck comes to pick up what is at the curb, the worker in the garbage truck has to pick out the garbage from among what is at the curb, then the recycling truck comes and has to pick up the recycling material and put the paper in the paper side of the truck, and other recyclables in the other side of the truck. All the garbage is put out on the designated day, but it’s not all picked up by the same truck at the same time.</p>
<p>Houses are too close together here for people to have that many cans, and in Manhattan it’s a whole other process entirely because of the massive apartment buildings.</p>
<p>We aren’t allowed to have 6 or 7 cans. That is a ticketable offense. Most garbage is put out in bags (6 are allowed) or is tied up. If a truck comes to pick up what is at the curb, the worker in the garbage truck has to pick out the garbage from among what is at the curb, then the recycling truck comes and has to pick up the recycling material and put the paper in the paper side of the truck, and other recyclables in the other side of the truck. All the garbage is put out on the designated day, but it’s not all picked up by the same truck at the same time.</p>
<p>You haven’t described anything that couldn’t be resolved with grabber arm trucks and colored cans and/or boxes. The whole thing just sounds like a jobs program, and could be done at a lower cost with far less human injury with grabber arm trucks. Other parts of the country have divided recycled trash and do it all with grabber arm trucks.</p>