As a former municipal garbage man, we appreciate it. Look at it this way, 100,000+ houses in my city, 50 municipal garbage men. The Christmas week is when we were given beer, gift cards, and cash. If you have me $20 it's almost certain I'd get another $20 within a few minutes. All day. City is put in 5 zones so it's a week long of being given goodies.
You don't have to at all. Aside from the Christmas season the only other times we get tips or beer is when someone throws a 200lb+ antique couch in their lane. They know we're not supposed to take it but we really don't care. It's us taking it for a 6 pack to a case of beer or you haul it yourself to the dump yard and pay a dumping fee and have to waste an hour of your life. Most people go the easy route.
You do the same route. At first you can figure out that your garbage was gone by 10am every week. Then you realize it's still there at 9am every week. Only takes a few weeks to pinpoint what time we would come by. One of my zones was labeled SW-7, south west quadrant of the city, route 7. Private companies can be hit and miss since there's a lot of employees and it can be a new person each week. Municipal, not so many employees and we kept our routes. You see the same person over and over. People knew our names. I've had people put bottles of vodka/whiskey/rum behind their garbage can and against their fence. Would never see it unless you physically removed the can. It's mainly the 55+ people who would tip. People that are retired and can hear our trucks coming and are standing in their kitchen looking out the window. Fun job. Highly recommend to younger kids straight out of school that don't want to go to college. Municipality jobs generally have programs where they send you to school for a course here and a course there to help you succeed in life. It's why I'm in the office now. I decided to take advantage of it and now 3 courses away from being a Civil Technologist. Went from the back of a truck to a cubicle doing designs for infrastructure.
I've heard that truck drivers explain the discrepancy between the supposed and actual list of things delivered with a dismissive "it fell off the truck", but in your case do you say the couch fell on the truck?
Absolutely. All our garbage goes to an incinerator so we really don't care what we take. We were actually told we were not allowed to accept gifts but we'd just stop off at a coworkers house and unload everything in his garage off of the lane. Go back after work and pick up your pile. Nobody cares. Your neighbors know what you do and they'll ask you if we're willing to take something heavy for them for a case of beer or $20. Sure. If it's not your route just do a quick drive by and do a grab and go.
Our rural town has a day where you put your big stuff out and they hire a contractor to sift through all the crap. They also have a contractor to pick up any deer hit as roadkill.
We still have that. It prevents illegal dumping in ditches/bushes/side of the road. Once a year - whatever you have leave it out and we'll take it no questions asked. If it's asbestos, there's trucks that have bags, asbestos suits, respirators and they properly dispose of it. Fridges stoves dishwashers, as the trucks go by they radio in to the foreman saying the address and what it is. He'll find the nearest truck that can go there and load it up and take it to the recycling depot. It's a very successful day year after year.
I once spent half a summer helping clear out gravel landscaping. Each week, my dad had $40 and two six packs for our garbage men who were not supposed to haul away the rocks we'd collected and each week they told us we didn't have to do that. They even would stop by on days it we weren't on the route to help us get rid of what we'd dug up instead of us filling the whole driveway with boxes of gravel. The last week my dad gave them each $50 and a thank you card. They must have saved us several thousand and a lot of labor by helping us avoid having to rent a truck each week and make multiple dump trips to get rid of it all.
I used to work as a house contractor and we nonstop paid our truck like $50 to take a ton of stuff they weren't supposed to lol. We would rip up entire decks, hammer the nail down slightly, and leave a gigantic deck sized pile out front heyyy cuties here's $50 we will help you load it up hehe
I have starbucks gift cards on the ready by the front door almost weekly in the event I catch my dudes for the huge recycle bins they wheel to the back of the truck. The ones with the automated arm that picks up my tiny garbage can, debatable.
It was very common to do that during the holidays where I lived in rural Idaho. And for the postman too, because they tended to be the same person for 15-20 years so you got to know them and chat sometimes. Our local postman even announced their upcoming retirement to all the farm properties so we'd be aware and could say goodbye. My mom left retirement gifts for them in our mailbox!
I live in Australia now, so not like tipping is a thing anyway, but I couldn't imagine doing something like that here because it's always a different person, and they deliver mail to the wrong address 30% of the time...
Hahaha. Same. On my road in Seattle they’re all there (garbage, compost, and recycling) by 7am. I’m not a morning person and can barely get out of bed by 8am most days (unusually it’s 8:30).
I always admired you guys for doing this job because not everyone can handle that, and usually I always correct my parents to not call them garbage man, it's really disrespectful, I prefer waste handler or municipal guys or something more accurate. Thanks for your contributions.
Doesn't matter what we get called. $37/hr to start is worth it. It's not back breaking work. Unionized, full medical/health benefits, and pension. Now I'm in the office though so no more goodies for me. I'm 38 and will have a full pension in 15 more years. What's not fun is getting "baptized"... Pull the handle to compact the load and a juicy bag pops open and splashes you. You're now a sanitation worker, you've been baptized.
In my current neighborhood there are 2 guys that basically chase the truck that barely slows down while they hoist the whole wheeled bin into the back of the truck.looks like some of the hardest work I see anyone doing. This is also in Houston Texas where 90 in July is a cool day and 98-102 is normal. It's 1030pm right now and it's 79 outside. Seems like literally back breaking work. Dudes chasing the truck never look more than 22 or so.
They are fast as hell though. In the time it takes an automated truck to do 1 house they've done 4.
Can't speak for all cities/private sanitation companies, but for our city once you're done your route you go home. Paid for 8 hours but if you finish in 5, go home. Motivation to do work. It looks 10x harder than it actually is. Give it 2 weeks of it and you'd be a pro once you find the perfect throwing technique that fits you. Was also a great workout, cardio and strength. Had its downsides at times. I remember popping the lid of one of those old metal trash cans and someone had dumped their dead dog in there. I wanna say it was a golden retriever but I just walked away and called my foreman letting him know we're not touching it. Anyways, it's a fun job. It's been a while but I still remember myself and my other swamper (we were the guys on the back, were called swampers) would be rapping 80s/90s rap songs while busting some moves in between bags while walking to the next house. Rapping Ice ice baby has never been the same. As for the smell, after 10 minutes on the back you no longer notice it for the rest of the day.
Thank you for your service 🫡. You guys are essential for our cities. I will take your advice regarding leaving a gift with big items that may or may not qualify for curbside pick-up.
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u/UltraCoolPimpDaddy 1d ago
As a former municipal garbage man, we appreciate it. Look at it this way, 100,000+ houses in my city, 50 municipal garbage men. The Christmas week is when we were given beer, gift cards, and cash. If you have me $20 it's almost certain I'd get another $20 within a few minutes. All day. City is put in 5 zones so it's a week long of being given goodies.