Article by By Lois Courchaine
Posted 11-22-11

Last month, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law establishing a new California State goal of reducing solid waste going to landfills by 75 percent by the year 2020. Currently, municipalities are required to reduce, reuse or recycle a minimum of 50 percent of their trash.

Some may argue the merits of this new law. But one thing is for sure -- here in the Golden State we are shifting away from the old standard solid waste management systems, like landfilling, to newer ways of thinking about how we dispose of materials. For me, having chosen to make a career out of dealing with the way people discard their "waste" has been a challenging and fascinating time. It seems more people are becoming aware of the importance of their choices, both at the beginning of waste cycle (purchasing a particular product) and at the end (discarding a product or its packaging). Hence, the large increase in "environmentally preferable" products showing up on retailers' shelves, well as the increase in recycling we're seeing. In 2010, residents and businesses in Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda and Walnut Creek together recycled 58 percent of their waste, compared to 51 percent in 2007.

It's clear that Californians are trying to steer away from landfilling and shift their efforts to "resource recovery." It's also clear that shift will, undoubtedly, increase costs for solid waste services.

Why? You would think that with all the recycling going on, the companies recovering and selling those materials would naturally be operating at a hefty profit. Let me explain why this is seldom true, by way of an example. An individual home or business owner's garbage is collected at least once per week. That garbage is taken from their property to the Martinez Transfer Station, where it is commingled with other people's waste and put into very large truck. That truck then heads off to Keller Canyon Landfill adjacent to Pittsburg, where the trash is buried, and will probably never see the light of day again. So that means two trucks and about four employees were involved in the landfill "transaction."

The recycling process is very different...

To read more from this article click this link: http://www.insidebayarea.com/my-town/ci_19391428

Garbage? Poetry? Redemption? These ideas aren’t usually linked together. But out of the heap arose Garbage, A.R. Ammons’s 1993 book-length poem. Read the book review and author interview here: http://www.curatormagazine.com/lindsaycrandall/garbage-as-poetry/

by Alexis Petru
Published on November 14th, 2011

On a chilly November morning in San Francisco, two garbage collectors in bright yellow reflective jackets trudge up and down the city’s famous Filbert Street Steps, a stairway with 400-odd steps on one of the city’s steepest streets.

Many apartments on Filbert Street are only accessible by the stairs, so this is where residents set out their garbage and recycling carts. Working in the early morning twilight, the men locate each cart and then empty the recyclables into a bin they’re carrying and the trash into a burlap sack.

When they’ve serviced each cart, they head back to the truck, hauling the bin and burlap sack, and pour out the materials into the truck’s separate compartments for garbage and recyclables. Though it requires heavy lifting, this method of consolidating materials from a number of carts saves time, preventing the pair from making multiple trips back to the truck to empty each cart individually.

It’s 7 a.m., but Recology drivers Dave Franzoa and Fernando Gonzalez have been out on their route for three hours already.

The men are just two of the over 125,000 garbage and recycling collectors in the U.S. – an occupation that may not reap many accolades, but is essential to keeping our cities clean and – especially as recycling programs become more widespread – protecting our environment.

You may not be familiar with the garbage drivers that work in your neighborhood: You set out your garbage and recyclables weekly and – almost as if by magic – the carts are picked up, often while you’re still asleep or when you’re at work or school.

In fact, there is a good chance you’ve never even thought about who picks up the material you leave at the curb – until your garbage pick-up is missed or you’re stuck behind a garbage truck when you’re late for an appointment.

Just who exactly are these individuals who visit our homes weekly and whisk away our disposables? Earth911 accompanied Franzoa and Gonzalez on their route in San Francisco’s North Beach and Telegraph Hill neighborhoods to get a behind-the-scenes look at a garbage driver’s daily routine – to show you the obstacles a driver faces and highlight the skills needed to perform this very demanding and very dirty job.

The garbage man geneBack on the route, Franzoa leaps into the truck, while Gonzalez hops onto the back of the truck, holding onto a railing, and the truck lurches forward.

“Not bad for a 51-year-old, huh?” he says, grinning.

Franzoa has spent 26 years as a garbage man in San Francisco, working for Recology, the solid waste and recycling company that has helped the City by the Bay achieve its impressive 77-percent recycling rate.

READ: San Fran Named Greenest City in North America

Waste management is in Franzoa’s blood. His great-grandfather worked in the industry in the early 20thcentury, after immigrating to San Francisco from northern Italy. Franzoa’s grandpa was also a garbage collector, but the garbage man gene skipped a generation – Franzoa’s dad was a butcher – until Franzoa started working for Recology, then called Norcal Waste, in the 1980s.

He started working his current route in the city’s northeastern neighborhoods, with breathtaking views of the bay and its bridges, 18 years ago. Today, his route partner of 12 years, José Morales, is home with a cold, so Franzoa is working with Gonzalez, a “floater” who rotates jobs in the company, filling in where he is needed.

“Most routes have one driver,” he says. “But this is such a dangerous route, so they kept it a two-man route.”

Read more from this article at: http://earth911.com/news/2011/11/14/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-recycling-driver-recology-san-francisco/

Beth JettWHNT NEWS 19 Anchor/Reporter2:47 p.m. CST, November 8, 2011

Morgan County— There is good news for Morgan County when it comes to handling garbage.  Within the next few months, the county will implement a new high-tech trash collecting system.  It's a progressive move born from a tragedy one year ago.

The automated garbage trucks in Decatur are not exactly considered new technology, but they will be new for Morgan County.

"We're going automated," said Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long.

Tuesday morning, Morgan County Commissioners announced they're spending $1,150,000 to purchase five trucks, similar to the ones Decatur city crews have used since 1991.

The idea is to get rid of three-man sanitation crews, two of whom hang off the back of the truck as they collect garbage.
That practice turned fatal in Morgan County last December.  That's when a county inmate working on a garbage truck died on the job.

"He had run to get a can and as he was coming back to the truck was struck by a car and killed," said Long.  "That made us all start thinking, you know, we need to find a safer way to do this."

Long says county officials did research and found automated trucks would alleviate that danger, requiring only one person to drive and manipulate an arm that picks up the garbage cans.  Furthermore, Long says the new system will save enough money over time to pay for itself.

"We won't need as many personnel there," said Long.  "Of course when you do have as many personnel, you don't have as much workers comp costs, so it trickles on down."

He says he hopes to avoid any lay-offs, saying the positions that will be lost are filled by temporary workers.

The system is expected to be fully operational by may 2012.

The county plans to order 13,700 garbage cans to provide one to each household, free of charge.

The county bought the five trucks from Ingram Equipment in Pelham, Alabama.


Article from http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-morgan-county-changing-to-automated-trash-trucks-20111108,0,3774615.story

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And seriously, he was really friendly. So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’ This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’ He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally.

Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so ... love the people who treat you right and pray for the ones who don’t.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!Have a garbage-free day!

This article is taken from http://www.environmentalistseveryday.org
Click the link to see the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNZT8sMmgwg

Slow Down to Get Around is a national safety campaign that reminds motorists to drive more carefully near solid waste collection vehicles. Motorists are often distracted while driving and frequently crash into collection employees or vehicles—sometimes with fatal consequences.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has endorsed the campaign and has partnered with NSWMA to develop several flyers. The flyers are intended to be used as a bill stuffer and can be used to communicate this important safety message to customers, local regulators and others. They can be customized to include a photograph of one of your trucks.

NSWMA aired Slow Down to Get Around public service announcements (PSA’s) in a dozen media markets in 2008. NSWMA developed this PSA for television and offers Slow Down to Get Around decals available for haulers and local governments to put on their trucks.