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He is a man who spent 20 years in the gar business, and he knows it. He knows it, baby. He knows pails and bins, baby. Pails and bins. He's done it all. He collected garbage in new York city and outside of the city. We're going to learn everything you want to know about it. Today's guest is garbage man, mr. Wayne owens. Shine that light on me I'll sit and tell you my story shine on me and I will find a song I will sing it wayne. Owen.

What's up, dio? Thanks for having me.

Yeah, thanks for coming in, dude. So you're a garbage man?

Correct.

Do you guys have a term that you guys use within the industry?

Well, we used to go with sanitation engineer.

Okay.

That was our thing. It made you sound a little more like needed and wanted compared to a garbage man.

Yeah. And I guess we'll find out, I guess, even through the course of this chat. Where does it kind of land, I think, and that's one of the reasons. Yeah. I just want to learn all about the industry. In what area were you in?

I started in manhattan, grew up in staten island.

Okay.

Started in manhattan. I did almost two years and then switched over to staten island and finished my career there. Did 18 years in staten island.

Damn, you did 18 years, bro. Thank you for your service, first of all. So how do you get into it? How does it even start? Is it a family thing? Like your father just picks you up when you're young and fucking puts you in a recycling bin or something?

It's rule with them in new york. You take the city test, okay? College don't work out. You fall back on a city you know, firemen.

So those are different city tests. So those are different options.

Yep. And you different tests.

Okay. So a lot of people that don't go to college in New York, they'll fall back into that, and those are one of the options.

Correct.

So you take a different test. So you took a sanitation. Wow.

And that was it was sad, but it was a joke, really. Like, one of the questions that I'll never forget, never forget, how would you pick up this pile of dirt? And there was, like, a garbage truck. Like, you can't use that. And then there was, like, a shovel with a broom, which of course, that's what you would use. And then just like, a rake, like just craziness. But people get these things wrong, man.

Oh, yeah. You see somebody raking dirt all the time, and you usually yell a slur at them out the window after me. So you take the test. How many people go take the test? Do you take it at, like, a center? Where do they do it? It's not like MSG or something like that?

No, they use, like, public schools. Like, anything that they have available. High schools, grammar school, whatever they have.

Okay, so you roll up, like, the night before. Do you get a lot of sleep? Do you show up with, like, are you kind of preparing for do you think it's going to be so easy?

No. Yeah, they get you the book. Like, they have a book. Take the test.

Okay.

And after the second page, you're like, all right, I can't read this book. It's worse than when you went into reading the book. You're like, Wait, what's going on? My test. Over 100,000 people signed up, but they did a lottery, and everybody has to pay the 30, $35, whatever it is.

When you sign up, you have to pay.

Yeah, you send your form in with the money. But my test and they only did it this one time, they only let 30,000 people take the test. So those other 70,000 didn't even get to take it.

Damn. But they still paid the money.

Their money. It's just like anything else. They get their money in, they'll get their money.

Wow, bro. That's crazy.

Yeah.

So now you got 70,000 people who are pissed at the city. Wow. Okay, so you take the test. You're in there now. How long does it take to get your score?

They give you a few months, I'd say. Yeah, a few months until you get your score. I mean, come on. I wish I was trying to get the test to bring it here.

Yeah, really?

It was a joke. And I was actually in there with high school friends, and they were all running out. I was the last dude in the test. I'm like, what's going on here? And I'm not the smartest guy in.

The world, but me neither.

I'm like, what is going on. So I rushed through the last two questions.

Yeah.

Guess which ones I got wrong.

Those two. Wow.

So I got a 103 out of 105. Almost a perfect score.

Oh, dang. Okay, so now are you looked at like, you come in as a pretty high ranked in.

Yeah. So they give veterans and stuff extra credit. Well deserved. And I think my list, I want to say, was, like, 348 out of the 30,000 or 15. I forget what the number was.

You were in the top 400?

Yeah.

Wow. Okay.

I was hired within a year.

Okay, so you still are waiting a year to get hired.

Yeah.

And what is why is there no job positions? What is it? Is it a busy industry?

Yeah. Well, you got to wait till people retire.

Okay.

They have a set number, and that's what they go by.

Okay. All right. So somebody finally retires or something happens to them, and then now you get called in. Right.

Yeah.

Where were you when you got the call?

I was probably just home doing something stupid.

Yeah, I've done that.

I was still working in Manhattan doing, like I was a court runner for my cousin.

Okay.

So I was working.

Yeah.

But my mother said, listen, you could be retired in 20 years. You got to take it. I was 21.

Wow.

You know what 21 year olds do?

Yeah. Nothing great.

No, but you want to go out and party, and that's where your life starts. Right. Like oh, parties. But I grew up in Staten Island, where we were going to bars of 1617 years old.

Right.

So you did all that.

Yeah. And so did your mother say, look, I think this is something you should do? No.

She was like, no, you're doing this.

Oh, wow.

But thankfully enough, because she saw the end of it.

Right.

She said, do you want to be working till 60, 70, 80 years old? Is that really what you want?

Yeah.

So there is the light at the.

End, but you got an Andy Du frame.

Listen, it's better than any other job, I'll put it that way.

Wow. Okay. Well, I got to know more then, man. All right, so you get in, you're hired, you're excited, you get your first day. Like, how does that really go? And do you go to, like, a training camp or whatever?

Do you guys yeah, they send you for the driving training.

Okay.

And they teach you on dump trucks.

Okay.

So that's like, two, three weeks, you do your road test, you get your CDL, your license to drive the trucks.

Okay.

Now then, like, two days, they'll bring out and this was in Randall's Island.

Okay.

And I think they did two days, they bring a garbage truck out there.

Okay.

There's two steering wheels.

There's two steering wheels in the truck.

There's two steering wheels, and you got.

To pick which one you would use. No.

Well, no, it all depended on what street you were on. Like, if you were picking the right side of the street up, you could drive from the right. So you're close. Wow. So you can know because that's the biggest thing on the job. You got to put that thing where your partner wants it to make the day go easier.

Okay.

If I got to start dragging garbage around cars and everything else now, we're not having a good day.

And then when you get back in the truck, there's beef when you're in the cabin.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah. There were a few guys that and they're good friends of mine. I would let them know.

Yeah.

Beautiful.

Oh, yeah. We need that. That's what we need to see is, like, instead of cash cab, we need to see that would be sanitation cab violence, bro.

Yeah, there were some bad ones.

Yeah, that's beautiful, bro.

No, well, years ago, when I first got on, they used to have like, a one bench, like, across the truck.

Okay.

They got rid of those. So it was just a left side and a right side.

Okay.

You mostly drive from the left in Manhattan.

Okay.

Driving from the right, that was frowned upon because everything is different from driving on the right side. It's a whole different driving situation.

Oh, yeah. Every now and then you meet some fellow trying to drive from the but.

In Staten Island, it was like a law. Like, you had to drive from the right.

Okay. So there's certain places where you got to skid over to the so in that instance, you would just get over to the other side of the car and for that length of the truck yeah.

There's like a route button you hit.

Okay.

It just switches. Now you drive from that side.

Wow, dude. Today's truck still have that?

Yes.

Okay, great. Okay, cool. I didn't know that, man. That's real interesting, because yeah, dude, one time I had to take a driver's head or whatever, and they had the dude over. And this I think the car I was in was like it was a Toyota Tercel, bro. And the trunk was missing, I remember, in the dude's car. So there was this total wind current constantly just happening in the vehicle. And I remember driving that just out of sheer fear. Like, this guy's out of his fucking mind, and he popped a brake and kind of smile at me and shit. I'm like, this dude's fucking flirting with me, bro. I'm trying to learn. This dude is trying to touch a child or whatever. All right, so you get the first day, man. How does your first day on the job go?

They literally so my garage. They tell you, hey, show up on this time. 06:00. A.m. West Side, 30th Avenue. Manhattan Six was my first garage. So I'm like, all right, over near Javit Center. Okay. All right. So it's right. A block down from there.

Okay. So you get down there. Do you go down there a lot or no?

No.

Okay.

When you work in Manhattan, you want to stay out of Manhattan, okay. You deal with it all week. You deal with nonsense anytime. I worked in Manhattan, I just never wanted a party in Manhattan.

Yeah.

I couldn't stand it.

All right, so you get down there.

Yeah. So I get there. And you're meeting all these guys. I met a few when I signed up. The new guys, we came in with, I think, like eleven new guys.

Wow.

So I knew them by face. I didn't really get to know anybody.

Oh, yeah. I just watched Band of brothers. Have you seen that?

No.

It's so good.

No. And you're meeting like there's some old timers on there that don't like the new kids coming in.

Really? Yeah.

They got, like, grumbling Junior, Scum guys, this and that, scabs or whatever. So they're like, all right, here they're handing me a piece of paper, and they said, go pick this guy up on Second and 20th. So we had these sections all around Manhattan where guys would go because the garage wasn't big where I was at.

Okay.

So you would have section guys show up there, garage guys show up at the garage that I was at.

Okay.

And I'm like, Wait. I had to think to myself, I'm going to drive this garbage truck. Never drove in a city street where we were driving up Randall's Island. We were going in a circle. Okay, so now you're putting cars, people.

So you're in the truck downtown.

Yeah. And now they're like, oh, go pick up this partner. Dang bro, I never drove a truck in Manhattan, let alone you've probably driven a car or been in a car in Manhattan. It's not fun.

Oh. It's alarming.

It's crazy.

And so now you're driving the truck, and is it? Jesus Christ.

Your first day. Your whole thing is the mirrors worrying about you. It's a truck, it's not a car. Yeah, I got there.

Okay.

Let's put it that way.

All right.

That was all right. I didn't hit nobody. No hurting anybody. And I picked this dude up.

Okay.

Probably 35 years on a job.

Oh, he's been in there.

Scraggly looking guy, big beard.

Yeah.

Come on, kid, you're with me. I'm like, here we go.

Come on, kid. He calls you.

Yeah. So you know what you're falling into there.

Right. He's suddenly setting the stone.

He might have been one of the drivers. Guys, where you were at.

He might have been one of them.

Lurkers the way he said it kind of scared me.

I bet if you pluck a hair out of his beard and test it for nine year olds, who knows what will come back?

But yeah, dude. And everybody's like, looking at you.

Wow.

Because it's like you got stuck with this guy.

Oh, really?

So that's right away, I'm like, oh, man. All right. And, like, rule of thumb, first thing they teach you is do not stand behind the truck while the back of the truck is cycling. Okay. This dude was looking for everything in the truck.

Really?

He had all kinds of shit in his beard. Oh, it was nasty. And he didn't even care.

It was awful. He was just back there just freaking catching that hot tub flying out.

He's, hey, you looking for and looking at me like, I'm not in there with him. I'm just throwing it in to get rid of it. Dude, I'm not here to dig through it. Pulling out, like, spiderman figures. Yeah. Like crazy shit.

Oh, yeah. And that would go right in line with one of those kids.

Exactly. Driver's ed teacher. Definitely. That was his first job.

So he's just back there just collecting samples from the area. And now when he gets back in the truck, what's the inside of the cab? Does it smell pretty bad in there?

It's a mess. Yeah, until you get your own truck. Once I got a truck where you get time on the job, you get a route. Like, dude, there's cleaning supplies. We wiped our truck down every day. It was spotless in it.

Right.

But when you had guys that just didn't give a crap, it was filth, man.

And what kind of gear are you wearing? What kind of gear is a New York City garbage man, sanitation engineer. What type of gear are y'all locked in?

Just regular, you know, dicky pants with a winter sweatshirts.

You know, not a wetsuit or nothing.

Like and there were days you needed it.

Oh, I bet.

Yeah. When it rained, it sucked.

Yeah. I would think you would go full plastic.

Well, gloves and boots were like number one. Yeah, that was always like that's where you spent your money.

Okay.

Your pants. It is what it is. You go wash those.

Okay. So you got this kind of guy rolling with you. And how long does that shift go?

I was out there for a while that first day.

Really?

Because he's digging. He's looking for treasures.

Oh, this dude? Really? So he's a real hunter.

Five, six, seven hour route where normally the routes take about 2 hours.

Okay. Wow. Really?

Yeah.

So this guy's just out there, and he just likes to collect. Now, are some of these men just really collectors and they kind of hide masquerading as sanitation workers?

They do that. Or some of these guys get this stuff and sell it. They have businesses, man.

Really?

Yeah, they go to know flea markets and shit.

Yeah.

You have no idea, man. One dude in Staten Island, I hate to even give him the shout out because he's a douchebag, but anyway, yeah, fuck him.

But yeah, tell me.

It was like Sanford and Son on his roof leaving the garage some days. Like, he'd take furniture, this, that, everything. Yeah. And you would catch him at the flea market. But dude, listen. From what was told, he had over a million dollars from what he collected and sold in a bank. Yep.

Wow. So you worked in Manhattan, and you worked in Staten Island. Staten island. Yeah. You can sit this out here, too, if it's easy.

Totally different. Totally different setup. So Manhattan, like, the buildings. It's all buildings, right? House to house, we used to call it. So you would go, like, pail to pail to pail. That's maybe on, like, ten blocks, like, where I was at. But you get, like, one building on the corner of just, say, Second and 42nd. I mean, there's 2000 bags out there.

Wow.

And we used to call them sausage bags.

Okay.

So they have compactors in the buildings that literally compact these things, and then the guys knot the ends, and they're anywhere from 3ft to four or 5ft long.

Oh, yeah. It's like somebody making sausage drinks.

Yeah. And they were not like, really?

So you got that long, dog. Could somebody have put a body in one, you think?

Oh, yeah, you could have put a body in any one of them. I ain't looking. Yeah, that other dude is. I'm not. I could give a damn.

Yeah, that dude fucking I would tell.

People all the time, you want to do that? Just put it in a bag. I ain't looking.

Oh, that dude's selling femurs on yeah, that dude's out there fucking slanging shin bones on ebay. Somebody could put a body in one of those bags, dip it out to the garbage guy. You never know these days. Everybody's watching you. You Google something, you get an ad for it, you whisper something to your cousin, and next thing you know, you're getting advertisements for Tootsie Rolls or something. We're all being monitored. It feels like. That's why you need a VPN. With Exprsvpn, 100% of your traffic is rerouted through their encrypted servers so no one can see a thing. You can search for whatever you want. You want to geotrack a wolverine or a woman across town? Or a man. If you love a man, you can do it, and nobody will know. Exprsvpn works on all your devices, whether you browse the Internet, on your phone, tablet computer. You can use up to five devices at the same time under one Exprsvpn subscription. So stop letting people invade your privacy right now. Get three extra months of ExpressVPN for free. When you go to ExpressVPN.com. Theo, that's ExpressVPN.com theo ExpressVPN.com theo to learn more. You don't know you're a bad cook until you know it.

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That's H-E-X-C-L-A-D-T-H-E-O listeners get 10% off their order by going to that link. Just go to Hexclad.com. Theo so a way to get if you decided to decease somebody or kill somebody I don't like to use that term, but make somebody be dead immediately in front of you. Let's say that in New York City, you could put them into the shoot in your building, the trash.

Well, I wouldn't do that. That's a little much. But if you had access to the compactor, okay, then I think it's different. But if you're going to shoot a dude 13 flights down, I mean, somebody's about to hear, there's got to be some blood.

Somebody can hear a wristwatch.

Somebody's watch is going to connect, and something's going to ping in. And you know how that goes, right.

So if you could get the body down to the compactor, there's a chance it could just be thrown out in one of those sausage bags.

Gone.

Wow.

Yeah, you would have cars park so tight, and there's 30 just say in a smaller stop, there's 15, 2030 bags.

Wow.

I'd be like, oh, sad day for this Jaguar owner. Literally. Because I was 21, I was stupid.

Oh, yeah.

I would grab them both sides, slide them right across the hood.

The jaguar.

Whatever.

Call people, dude.

Yeah, whatever.

Call Bruh. I fucking there was nothing better than doing something to the fucking rich boy.

Well, they just didn't care.

Oh, yeah.

They had no respect for me. So now it's like, all right, because they parked illegally. Well, no, they're parked legally, but they give you no space. So now those bags, they're heavy. And I get it. Everybody would say, well, we don't know. We're not garbage man.

Right?

Well, now you're going to know.

Yeah. Now you got to go to the body shop.

Fix your shit on your dime.

Yeah, dude. I remember when I used to go over to rich people's houses. My budy Jeff would steal. He had a whole collection of silverware. And we were poor. Poor. So it was like everybody was rich. You know what I'm saying? We knew people. If you had a fucking front door, bro, you had a little bit of fucking Jeff Has silverware from everybody, dude. And then if I went over to rich people's houses, a lot of times I would pick my nose when they weren't looking and feed a fucking booger to their dog.

What did you get out of that little what was the thought process of getting out of that?

I think for me, it was something like start from the bottom. Like, you convince these animals to fucking work for you low key, you know what I'm saying? It was like, they may think they're doing all this and all of that, but who's fucking feeding these animals?

They just ate your booger.

Yeah.

No, I get it.

It was like I'm taking things to the lowest it's like I'm just like I don't know. It was probably like some Lord of the Flies shit or whatever. So you got the big sausage bags in the city, right?

Yeah. And the city is just multiplied crazy. Like, there were times where you knew that if their compactors were broke, it was awful, man.

Really?

Now they put out, so they could probably fit, I'd say, a normal four or five bags of garbage in one of these sausage bags. But now the compactor broke, so now they got to put regular just bags out. So it just went from ten to 15 sausage bags to 150 regular garbage bags, and it's one at a time, just chucking them over the cars.

And now do you throw them to a buddy and he puts them in.

Or do you that's the goal in the city. You're pretty much just working together the whole time.

Okay.

When you go to Staten Island, it's like half hour on, half hour off. Okay, so I'll drive for a half hour. You load for a half hour, vice versa, back and forth till the route's done.

Okay?

But in Manhattan, it's know, all hands on deck, because those bags are kind of heavy.

Sometimes it reminds me a little like watching that show. It's like an ocean show, you know I'm talking about it's like an ocean show. And they're angry, and every year one of them dies and they put it on like, TMZ. But they are looking for car first. They're looking for fish or something, maybe.

I don't know.

Yeah. Here's a video right here of some sanitation guys right here throwing garbage bags into. Oh, wow.

That dude, I was awesome at that.

Were you really? Bro, that dude. Wow.

That's a private guy.

That's buddy healed right there.

Yeah, that's a private guy.

Oh, that's a private guy. It's not one of your boys?

Yeah.

So how can you tell me that.

For a year, the truck our trucks were white, okay? The white elephant. That's what they called it. And the white elephant always got in people's way, really pissed them off.

Oh, yeah. You guys are the worst. Dude.

I used to do the whole kogan real quick. I used to do that. I take my gloves off and they bang in Manhattan. And I'd be like, you're an asshole. I'm like, you should have woke up ten minutes early, because now you're stuck behind me and I ain't moving.

Well, the craziest thing about a sanitation truck is that not only are you stuck, but it smells bad.

And they used to get real close. And like I was saying, when the shit used to spray out, especially rainy days after a rainy day, or if it was raining, wet days, dude, that thing. And the cars would get covered. I'd be like, oh, well, that's on you, dude.

So that must have been kind of fun, just throwing those bags. That seemed like something a kid would love to do.

I just thrown behind my back, just running down the know in Staten Island. Because it's a lot lighter in Staten Island.

Right, right. So that was in Staten Island, but in the city it's a little bit more you got to have your dude there. You guys are loading this thing up. You're just keeping it moving.

Yeah.

And in the city, how many bags can go are those big sausage bags can go into the cycle. And what's the cycle like of the truck?

Well, you probably fit like five, six of those bags in at a time. But your average in Manhattan was ten to 1314 tons of garbage in per truck. Per truck.

So you start out with nothing in there, empty. Okay.

And there's a compactor in the middle, like in the truck, and then it just cycles and compacts it the whole time.

Okay.

And the rule is done. You got to get the route so you have to get the whole route on the truck. So you would have to maneuver sometimes. Squeeze a little more. Squeeze a little more.

Really? Can you hear it getting tight back in there?

Oh, yeah. You could feel it. It changes the whole drive of the truck, really? From being empty to heavy. Yeah.

We spoke one time with a female truck driver, and she had worked with and her son, I think, had breast reduction surgery. But she had worked with a cement truck, right?

Yeah.

And she said sometimes when the mixer was full, she would drive. And when she stopped on one of the brakes, you'd feel the cement come up just the back of the it was just really interesting. So that kind of made me think of that.

Oh, it changes everything. You think about it, you double everything because tons of 2000 pounds, so 36,000, and then the truck is probably another 14. You're looking at 35, 40,000 pounds. It ain't easy to stop.

Wow. Yeah. So you'd have to. Set the yeah, you can feel that weight. That's pretty crazy.

Yeah, it's harder to stop. And the trucks would jump to begin with, I think New York got, like, all the secondhand trucks.

What?

They're like, oh, try this, like, Mac truck. Like, oh, yeah, try like dude. It was crazy for me. It was terrible. I'm tall, I'm 65, so it's like just getting in the truck. I had to get so used to not hitting my knees on the dashboard. It was just not comfortable to sit in.

Damn.

But they didn't care. Whatever they got a discount on, they took it.

Wow. Yeah. That's everybody nowadays. They'll put you in a damn, dude. They'll put you in a fucking baby stroller and make you put six bags on the baby.

Whatever.

You could fit they're cutting corners.

Whatever. They could fit three wheels, not four. Like crazy.

So how tight does that trash get in there? Can you see it building up? Like, does it build up some heat?

Is it that yeah, no, when you dump it, you'll see it's like a brick comes out. It'll start falling out here and there, but there's steam coming off. It methane gas, man. Yeah. And even if you go out, staten island has the biggest landfill in the world. You could see it from space.

Oh, wow.

That's Staten Island landfill. And they have constant pipes that are burning because all the methane gas coming out of the ground.

That's fucking beautiful, man. God, it's almost like Greece or something when they do the Olympics or whatever and they light the torches.

Yeah.

Oh, wow. That is amazing.

Yeah, they stopped dumping it now, but that's back.

They should have kept dumping.

Yeah, they gave up. But it sucks because I do know a lot of people that passed away in Staten Island from cancer. But the cancer rate on Staten Island is awful.

Is it really?

That's why I had to get the hell out of there.

Wow. Yeah. I want to get into some of my friend my friend Aaron, actually, he's part of a new company called Vespine. And what they do this is pretty interesting they take the methane gas at landfills and they burn it, but they convert it immediately into.

You know yeah, that works.

Now you have electricity that's right there available. So say if they had, like, trash trucks or something and that they were electric. Electric. Then they could charge them up immediately, or they could use the energy, like, for a little bit. They were using it to mine bitcoin when bitcoin was popular, but now they're finding other places to use the energy. But it's just kind of fascinating, something that's going on. But I can't believe that that log is huh. Now, what do they call them? Bricks? Logs? Cause that's almost like a damn diamond.

Of, you know listen, when you dump, you just dump you're not staring at it. You just go out and get out of yeah, because we used to dump now in Manhattan, we started dumping on the side of the turnpike in Jersey. And that guy burns it, but he's got million dollar filter, so he's able to the smoke coming out to clean.

Really?

Come on, dude. Crazy money, dude. You have no idea. They were charging 50 something dollars per ton to the city. Plus he signed, like, an $80 million contract with the city to take all the garbage, because who got to get paid off to have the trucks now on the turnpike? Because they don't want that. And then he's selling the ash. Yeah, dude, just money over money. There's so much money in garbage, dude, you have no idea.

Really?

It's a billion dollar business.

Damn. And the Mafia used to be involved in it, right? That's why they were in it.

When you brought up bodies, that's the one thing on Staten Island. Those are the myths, the tales. My stepfather, God rest his soul, used to work out there. He was a tractor operator. And he said that cars used to come in, pimped out Lincoln's, and they would just all turn around, and the car used to go up to the top of the hill, never see it again.

Wow.

Car just disappear. Person disappear, they'd pull out. See you later, fellas. That was it.

It's the devil's ocean, baby. The landfill. Yeah.

There's a lot of stories out there with that landfill.

I wonder I wish God would just tell us how many bodies are in that landfill. Sometimes I pray sometimes that I wake up with a number in my head because, you know, there are definitely did you ever feel like did you ever get a weird feeling or premonition, like you're driving the truck home? Could there have been a body in there? And you have no idea at some point, whenever you're dumping it, you would have seen something.

Listen, you definitely think you could get a feeling if somebody comes out and says something, you're like, oh, maybe this dude just whacked somebody. His wife ain't healthy right now. She's probably in this bag, right? I'll throw it in. Yeah, but no, I had one these two guys came out of the house when they're hysterical crying.

Oh, yeah.

I'm like, what the fuck? Know what now? And we were in that kind of neighborhood in Staten Island, and I'm like, all right, what's up? Our dog died.

I'm like, oh, my gosh.

Bring it to get cremated. Why are you telling me they're trying to cut corners.

Gay dudes trying to cut corners.

Could we throw it in the truck? I'm like, fuck. And I'm a dog owner at the time. I'm a dog lover. Next thing you know, on the bed, dude, a yellow Lab. This thing had to be 100 pounds.

Oh, and they both grabbed healed out.

They were crying. No, it was on the bed. They got rid of the bed, the toys, the shit was still lined up like he was just playing and then just dead. And they're like, okay. And just launched him into the back of the truck. I'm like I told my partner, I'm like, dude, I can't cycle that up, man.

Yeah.

Fuck. So it's like you would get the feeling if somebody was like, oh, yeah, can I throw this bag in? Like, Where's your wife?

Yeah.

I heard you all fighting last week about garbage.

And so what? Then you tell a guy, hey, you pressed the button. I ain't pressing it.

Yeah, in that case, I was like, Dude, I told my partner, and he didn't give a fuck. He's like, yeah, all right.

Yeah. I was like, I'll sell his collar in an hour.

Exactly. That bed usable. Put that on etsy on Facebook. Marketplace make $13. They'll sell anything on that shit.

Oh, yeah, dude, you could fucking sell your cousin on that bitch, boy. You know what I'm saying? If he can't read, if he's still teachable you'll fucking, somebody will buy that bitch in an hour. You go on there, find your ex wife on that bitch.

Exactly.

You could buy used barrettes on there if you want to, bro.

Wow. That brought my olden age back.

Same man in barrettes, boy. Back in the day, you see a girl with a couple of barrettes in or I think, what it oh, you know what girls used to wear when I was, like, in school? They would wear headbands. Remember that?

No. My sisters were big in the scrunchies.

Oh, yeah.

They were all over the goddamn place. Tangled up with hair, all kinds of nasty. I grew up with three sisters.

Oh, really?

Yeah, man. I was the only boy. Damn. Three sisters. I've been through it.

Wow. Yeah. Damn. And did any of them were they okay when you got into the sanitation game? What'd they say?

My sister april was pissed.

Really?

Because she filled out the shit and sent it in, and she didn't get picked to take the test. God, she was pissed still. To this day, she reminds me, I got you that job.

Wow.

I said, Well, I took that test. Actually, it was hot as hell. You didn't take it for me.

She went and took it and didn't pass?

No, she didn't get called. Remember I said she didn't get the lottery? 15, 20,000 people took it.

Wow.

She didn't get picked to take it.

It's crazy that even at the like that there's a lottery to, like there's, like, lotteries at every end of the spectrum everywhere of life, man. So what season of the year is the worst time of the year for trash, man?

Definitely the winters. The winters were awful. The summers were hot. But once you got used to that smell, even nowadays, I'll never be able to smell how awful it is. Because you're just used to it.

Yeah.

It's like second nature. The maggot smell and just all that nastiness. It's just part of it. The winters were grueling, man.

Really? And that's because of the cold.

Just a cold. The ice. If it snowed, you're stepping over all that shit. Still got to pick the garbage up. Now you're working twelve hour days with if it snows, you're constantly driving around the truck all day. It's grueling.

And were you a lot of cleats and stuff? What would you wear for shoe?

Wear just boots.

Wow.

Yeah. So you had rainboots, you had junk boots just for because I always wore like a hiking boot. Because I can move faster when you're wearing like heavy boots. Like they always said, don't wear steel toes because God forbid something hits you on the foot, it'll snap your toes off.

Oh, the steel would actually snap your toes off. Yeah. So that's the downside of wearing steel.

Toe boots if you're in an industry like that. Yeah, because there are some cans I mean, I don't think back in the day they used to be metal cans. They used to pick up ash in New York City. So everybody would burn that garbage in the buildings and they would have these like 150 pound steel garbage cans. And I had lifted a few of them in my time. They're no joke, man.

Wow.

Loaded with ash. So that's what they used to just dump.

So the buildings would just burn their garbage.

All the housing buildings, they used to just get rid of the garbage. That way there was no bags on the street.

So they had an incinerator in there. They would burn it up.

Every building in New York had an incinerator.

Wow.

Yep.

And when did that change code? Do you know?

One of these people came up with something that it was killing?

Oh, probably some Monopoly, some bullshit. One of Trump or Chris Christie's fat buddies, I'm sure. Yeah, they were probably can you look that up when that changed?

Yeah, they were probably killing the polar bears or something. Igloos were melting somewhere.

Yeah, they got some grainy video of fucking rare fox doing two lines of fucking city ash.

We can't fucking do this no more with a sign. Stop burning your garbage. Save me.

Yeah. How did that fox even learn to write, bro? Nobody asks any questions on this bullshit anymore. Here it is. In 1989. Mayor Ed Cock or Coach Coch. Wait. You know who else talked about Ed Coch? I think was Bobby Kennedy Jr. When he was on, talked about Ed Coch. Mayor Ed Koch signed a bill that required incinerators in New York City to shut down within four years. And lo and behold, all incinerators had stopped operations by the end of 1993. And that was the end of that. No more trash burning. Does it say why? Anything else?

Pollution.

Oh, the pollution, yeah. Oh, the air pollution.

Yeah. They would just burn in.

Right?

Like that was if you were burning it in your fireplace. Yeah, they didn't have like I was telling you in jersey, this guy has a multimillion dollar filter and no more emissions, blah, blah, blah. They didn't have that back then.

Oh, I see. You said every building was burning but weren't the trashmen just picking it up and taking it somewhere to burn it?

No, then it was just ash. So they were just getting rid of it. I don't know what they did with it back then.

But I mean after the trashmen, after they shut down the incinerators, the trashmen just took it. Oh, they just put it in a landfill?

Yeah.

So they weren't burning it?

No. So then that's when there's a few landfills they started. There was one in Brooklyn, I think they were like all over New York. But staten island. Oh yeah, we're just going to do this for a few years and then it turned into the biggest landfill known to man.

Wow. And yeah, what do you say to people who like because a lot of landfills have been filled over with dirt and people buy houses on them. Right. What do you say to the people who you buy a house and then four years later everything you eat tastes like fucking fig newtons and fucking baby gravy or something and your son's got fucking facial hair at know?

Yeah, that's probably what's going on. They're actually staten island. They're making into a dude. Yeah, I've seen animals out there. Some wicked there's this gopher or whatever the fuck it was. Dude, it looked like a full blown pit bull. That's how big this fucking thing was. I swear I saw a bear out there. Everybody told me I was but because there was a ton of deer like the deer swim from jersey. They were coming in.

Why they hated over there?

No, it's just like anywhere else they're building and they're pushing them out of their homes. So now they see this big forest across the and the river's, whatever the hell it is. It's not a river, but there's a short little spurt from Jersey to staten island in one location and they just swim over and they got a whole shit and nobody could shoot them.

Shoot that close to the city.

You just can't hunt on staten island.

Is there like a habitat on the landfills? Is there like animalia that's out there living? What is that like it almost seems like because it's almost its whole own narnia. Like a fucking dirt. Like a fucking definitely trash narnia.

You see mutant stuff out there.

Really?

Yeah, rats look like cats. Like I said, there was like a gopher that looked like a pit bull. And you got deer running through that place. Nuts like big boys. And nobody can hunt them.

Oh, you can't hunt them? No, dude, deer people are crazy. Deer people. I'm surprised nobody jumps the fence and gets out there.

They try.

Really?

Yeah, they've tried. And they have little security here and there. Guy killed a big buck once and he actually got fired. And it was a mechanic? Yeah, he was a mechanic for the city and got fired.

He was out there hunting on the landfill?

Yeah, he killed it and then everybody saw it because you can't hunt it. So you're seeing this buck walked around like it was his area. He would be out in the middle of the day just walking the streets. He didn't give a shit. He was gangster. But now they also put a guy on the hill to keep the population down.

Oh, wait, so there's a person that works on the landfill?

Yeah. Well, they pay a guy who sleeps in a tent on the landfill that takes care of the deer population. Yes. Snips tucks cuts all kinds of things.

They dart the deer does Urida, what's it called? Neutralizes them? No.

Well, it's vasectomy. Vasectomy and all kinds of so they're.

Doing animal vasectomy out there on the.

Land, pill anything to keep the population down.

That's beautiful, man. Yeah.

And he sits out there in the.

Cold and what does he do? He darts them and they fall asleep. Then he slips over.

Snips tucks.

Damn.

It's a rap.

Gosh.

Yes. But some get through sometimes.

That fucking nut grinch, he just rolls up on them.

Man. Dudes, snipering deer out in the middle of the landfill and shit. But that's what they do.

God.

Because like you said, they would just run wild.

That fucking sperm, Dexter. That dude's out there fucking clipping.

He's probably selling it too.

Oh, dear. Semen. Dude, I'll fuck. I'll fucking get rid of a quarter 40ft of my home here in Tennessee. Anybody will buy that shit.

Oh, damn.

Wow, bro, that's incredible. I didn't know that that was a job. Somebody lives in a tent on a landfill and euthanizes or sedates and then vasectomies, deer, they have to keep the population down.

That's what they do.

Bears are moving across New York. It says right here. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is urging residents to secure food sources that might attract bears as bear sightings increase due to the animal search for high calorie meals after winter. Hibernation. Wow.

Yeah, people. I just went to dinner with a couple friends of ours, me and my wife. She's going to kill me that I'm saying this. And the wife's like, wait. They don't wait for off peak hours and come over the bridge. I'm like, you can't be serious to think deer are running over a bridge to get there. No, they see the forest. They're getting kicked out of their land and they see it, so they swim over there.

Yeah, well, we had a guy. This guy was a medium sized animal detective. He was on and he said that yeah. A lot of times animals will just get into your house because they don't know it's your house. Their nature is getting destroyed and so then they just go to whatever seems like a place that's safe.

Yeah.

So sometimes it's people's attic because a lot of people was finding raccoons in the attic in a lot of urban areas. But what else, dude? Okay, so there's methane coming off of that trash block already when the compressors compress it that much?

Yeah, there's definitely a light smoke coming off of it.

If you threw a match in there, would it be flammable?

Maybe? Listen, I wasn't trying that. To me, like I said, we get done 2 hours, I could get done, be done back at the garage, hanging out, shower done. If I get covered with ain't junk and be done, I'm not paying attention to what comes out of the truck at that point.

How big is that block that comes out of the truck? Like, show me with your hand. Like how big is that block? Do you know what out of the garbage truck? Yeah, the one that gets compressed after it's full and it compresses it up.

Full garbage truck.

A full garbage truck.

Like I said, you had ten tons. I want to say the truck was 14ft by maybe eight 9ft tall by the width of a garbage truck. Twelve. The things the size of this room, the block. Yeah, that's how big the garbage is. When I went to Staten Island, I was doing six tons. And that's a totally different situation that's more just fluffs out. But when you're in Manhattan, you're packing and packing and packing to get that route.

Does it just come out as like a big do you get to see the brick at the end? Yeah.

No, it's not like a brick where it's going to come out as an actual brick and they pick it up and just build a house with it.

Okay.

You know what I'm saying? It's just falling apart, like as it's coming out.

Okay.

Yeah. And then now they ship out the garbage from New York. They ship it to like, Pennsylvania. They use it for landfill.

Okay.

Like you had said, they fill the swamps and stuff and then they build on it ten years later.

Wow.

And then the son has a beer that three.

Oh, yeah. When your son's a fucking mall Santa at five years old.

Exactly. But they don't care.

Yeah, well, I mean, that's one of the issues. They say that a lot of people that's having autism retardation. Right. Retardation people I try to say it differently because some people get offended, but retardation all kind of stuff like that. Like brain problems for children is because our water and food supply is so contaminated.

Yeah, I wouldn't doubt it.

It makes sense.

But you know how they are. They're not going to test it. If somebody's making money off nowadays, they're making money off of all those unfortunate.

Know so Chuck Schumer right there.

Why throw that know?

Uh is there joy happening around the holidays, though? Is that an exciting time to be out and about? Because you get to at least be in like there's a romanticization of people being in New York City around the holidays. Right. And I know you guys, your route runs ran early there. What time did your route run?

Yeah, we started at 06:00 A.m..

Okay, so you start at 06:00 A.m.. But was it still fun to be in the holidays around that time, even though it was so colder? It's just the worst time because it's winter.

Yeah. No, it was still good times. Just a lot more people on the street. Even in those early days, everybody's now coming in. People want to see New York City.

Yeah.

I don't know why, but to me it's just a yeah, you know, that's New York for you.

Oh, yeah. People will come to stare at a know, I mean, shit, they got porn sites that's based on it. How long would it take you, those routes in the city? How long does a trash route in the city take a garbage man?

It all depended on the day. The route, your average was two and a half, 3 hours.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. But by the time you got out there, you start at six. By the time you get to the route because now we were on the West Side, we picked up on the East Side. So you get out there like 630, quarter to seven, start the route right now you got to drive to Jersey to dump it. So by the time you get back to the garage, you're running hustling to be able to sit down, eat lunch for hour and a half, and then you go home. It's not worth it. Now that I look at it, I killed my body for no reason.

So you get there at six. You probably leave for work around five or something.

Yeah, I was getting up 05:00.

Okay. Getting up at five, out the door by 520.

Yeah. You had a rush because Staten Island was a nightmare trying to get off it. There's only the one bridge to get the Verizono through Brooklyn to get into Manhattan.

Okay.

The traffic was awful. So if you weren't at like I used to meet a few guys at 05:00 at the bridge.

Okay.

If you weren't there at five, you weren't getting there by six.

Maybe I'll take a ferry or drive.

Drive.

Okay. Bet. Okay. So you get that done so you can get it done in a couple of hours. Right. And you still get paid. You get paid for an eight hour day? Yeah.

You get paid the 8 hours.

So there was some cool value in getting it done quick.

Yeah.

Were you guys racing ever? Was it fun?

Exactly. It was always a competition who could get done faster. But like I said, I look back now after having back surgery, two shoulder surgeries. A knee surgery?

Really?

Yeah. You look at you just beat yourself up, and for what?

And does the city pay for those surgeries?

Yeah, I was on their time, so I did both shoulders and my knee on the job. And then a year after I retired, I just had back surgery. Two years in June. It was two years.

Wow. Would you have disc replacement?

No, actually, they went in. I had dyschectomy.

Dysectomy?

L, five, S one I don't even know.

Wow.

LMNOP I call it because it's just.

Pulling shit out of your back.

I have five of them, and they cut out three, but my disc was still okay, so they kept them.

Dude, you'll be a midget wrestler by.

Next year soon enough.

Wow.

I'm getting shorter and shorter as I go.

You'll be living at half mass, dude. Like somebody fucking died in service.

They're bringing you down soon enough.

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Yeah. And like I said, we ran around like idiots. I say to guys now, all of them, I still talk to guys on the job. I'm like, don't stop running around. Don't do this stuff no more.

What do you mean running around when you say that?

At one point, I want to say five, six years on, they cut the steps off the trucks, so it was all right. You used to jump on the back of the truck. Hang on. I'm sure you see pictures of guys whipping. I mean, I had guys that would do 50 miles an hour, and I'm on the back of the truck hanging off a dear life.

Oh, that's awesome.

Hitting bumps.

Yeah, but then you all were doing drugs back there.

I wasn't doing drugs. I never did that stuff.

But there was okay. You mean hitting bumps in the hitting bumps? Yeah. My bad, man. And I'm not trying to accuse you of doing anything.

No, but listen, I'll get to that. Then they cut the steps off the truck.

Why? To make it harder for you?

Well, pretty much. But the union was saying we all thought it was because we were getting done too fast.

Okay.

And listen, it's reality. Like, if we're getting done in two, 3 hours, they're saying, what are you doing the rest of the day?

Which is totally understood, being in the union. Don't you know what exactly union is for.

And we would just be fine with just going back and hanging out, eating lunch. Some guys would hang around, play cards. Some others were doing what they were doing, enjoying their lives. But, yeah, it just wasn't to rush and run around. But that's what I did. When I went to Staten Island. I was working with a guy who ran marathons on weekends. Wow, dude. My budy Eric. Dude, we were running I did probably three, 4 miles easy every day running.

So you're cruising then pull this mic down just a little lower. It?

Yeah. I'm like running. Like just running on the side of a truck. Like just running house to house. So we was pretty athletic at that time. Yeah.

When the trucks had the three steps on, it was pretty athletic.

No, when they took the steps off.

Oh, then you got to run alongside of it.

Yeah. Then we were running along more. Guys were getting a little healthier.

Yeah.

It's not the most healthy job.

Really?

Yeah. Lunch always came with, like, dessert.

Oh, yeah.

For what? A hoagie? And then add on some donuts coffee.

Get you a little fucking cut of tiramisu around the fucking yeah, in memory of fucking. Big Carlos or whatever. Yeah, I feel that, man. Damn. Well, that's like New Orleans. I think new Jersey and New Orleans have always been very like I bet probably staten island. Some of that accent you also hear in New Orleans, people like to fucking have a you know, people will have a beer at lunch a lot of times if they only have two or children or less, it's a little bit more cultural to be eaten. So you guys would get done. You guys would go eat. So you guys are getting paid for the full day. You got a couple of hours, you get done. So you must have been enjoying that.

Yeah, it was good. It was sit down time. Like you said, you're getting paid for 8 hours. But there were guys that stayed out there all day. They didn't mind it on those hot days or the cold days, they didn't mind it. They stayed out there.

And do you have to wear a shirt the whole time or what is the do you have people do it shirtless or not?

There were some guys that wore some questionable stuff.

Oh, yeah.

But before I got on in 96, all the rules changed. They went to the federal license before that, prior. You didn't need a CDL to drive the trucks.

Wait, you didn't need a commercial driver's.

License to drive a Sanitation up until 96. So those guys were partying. Those guys were partying. I heard some stories.

So you could drive a Ford Escort and then drive a garbage truck?

Exactly. That guy's like a Mini Cooper. They'll come in in a Mini Cooper and then jump in the garbage truck. I could do this.

A maximum Cooper. That's fucking insane.

So yeah, then they went to the federal license. So now it means everybody's got to get drug tested, random drug tests, everything. 96 that started.

Yeah.

And the partying here and there. Some guys just didn't care, so they still went for it.

Would some guys just drink on the job? Was there any partying on the job?

I had guys, one of my best guys, God rest his soul, like literally out the gate, 06:00 A.m.. Hey, kid, stop over here. Run into the store, come out. Two tall boys.

Oh, yeah.

And they did the routes where every half hour there was a deli, him and his partner. So if I filled in with him for his partner, like literally every time it was a half hour up, there was a different deli.

So they got full of mortadella and.

Two beers run in.

Praise God. Brother. Praise God.

Yeah. No guys enjoyed themselves.

Yeah, that sounds nice. That sounds like it should know. But they started fucking everything in America is a penny pinching fucking fiasco. Now nobody can have a fucking cheek full of strong cheese and two fucking bush lights just to get through the work day.

There was one dude, that dude, he was purple at one point.

Why? What happened to him?

He was just drinking.

Oh, drinking that much?

Dude, his skin was it was awful. Some people I don't even know if he's alive anymore.

He's not.

I'll tell you.

Look, after purple, it just fucking you turn into a BLM activist. It's a fucking rap after that.

Right in the ground.

Oh, man. And what about was a lot of uppers? Because it seems like people would be on Adderall, people would be on cocaine, people would be part. Was there anybody that could do that kind of lifestyle?

Oh, there were guys that partied like that. Yeah, there was one guy, like, right out of the 70s, my first day in Staten Island. So let's talk about this day. Like, the other one not as bad. This guy said, like, bandana on 70s glasses right out of hippie central, right?

Yeah.

Oh, you're with me. I'm like, all right, cool. Now I'm in Staten Island. First day. I'm like, what the hell's going on here? Once again, they don't know who I am. So they shove you with this guy. He's like, all right, kid, you go up and drive first. I'll stay in the back. So I'm like, all right. So I'm driving around. I live in Staten Island. Still didn't know, you know. So I'm just driving around and I'm like, what's that smell? Dude's hanging on the back, living his dream. Just token away.

Getting high, huh?

And then, like, half hour go by. All right, kid, now you go out. I'll let you know when still smell. I'm like, but some guys did it, and it was a daily thing.

Pull up a picture of Stevie Starlight if you can. See if this guy looks anything like this gentleman or not.

But some guys just couldn't stop, man.

Look like this guy a little maybe.

Yeah, no, not that crazy hair. Yeah, Steve's, like bandana across his you.

Know I know what you're talking about.

Like circle glasses.

Yeah, some guy who's fucking he listens to Springsteen, but he don't admit, huh?

Yeah, probably in the closet.

Yeah, closet.

Springsteen definitely not telling people about.

Um yeah. Once you get into Staten Island, what things change then? Because it's more like family housing and stuff.

Exactly.

And what is that like? Does it almost feel like a lot easier? Does it not feel like the front lines of trash? Because I feel like in the city, you're on the fucking front lines. You're right there. It's coming out of the know. You got guys catching shit in their beard and shit. But out in the suburbs, it feels like it would be a little bit easier. Is it or not.

Listen, when you get to the suburbs now, it turns into now you're dealing with homeowners. Like, when you were in the building, you were in the buildings. They didn't care. Yeah, you never saw them, never saw people. It's not like, hey, I'm from four f. You're an idiot. They don't care.

Oh, in a city, you could just drive and just yell out anyway.

Yeah, there's cabs beeping, so you're not waking anybody up. Everybody's used to it, right? They come to Staten Island, even Queens areas, like Brooklyn areas. Now you're waking everybody up. It's 06:00 a.m.. So who's bitching about that? Like I said, getting in the way. Yeah, there are certain areas that we couldn't go in. Like, they make them pick up midnight to like five so that you're not in their really?

So, like, what do you mean, richer areas?

No, just owned areas by certain types of people.

New York, so maybe upper echelon types or whatever you think.

No, certain religion people.

They have their so, like the orthodox Jews don't want you in their neighborhood.

Between twelve to five. Bingo.

Wow.

And those are some nasty mother.

Is it pretty nasty over there in their neighborhood?

Well, listen, it's nothing against them because I have actually been in some of those houses, because there are people in those areas that are very nice, but then passover comes and they throw everything out. Like five six year olds throwing matches, like shit, lighting shit on fire. It was crazy. I was like, I can't do this no more. Because they would bring everybody, pretty much who was available from other garages to come and do this. And you get one truck on a block and you just go up and down all day and they throw everything out. Like, I didn't know if you knew that about the orthodox Jews.

They just get rid of everything.

They throw everything out. Couches, beds, clothes, everything goes in the garbage.

Why? It's just part of the tradition, part of their religion. Wow.

Start fresh, dude. It's crazy.

So you got tons of trash.

Yeah, and it's just chaos. So it would be a garbage truck every block and a fire truck. Firemen would have like three blocks because the kids are running around. I had guys do it plenty of times. They light something on fire and then throw it in the back of the truck. Now, if I don't see it now, everything in the truck is on fire.

Why do they do that? Is that like kind of like just are they training for, like, battle or something?

No, it's just the kids.

Oh, kids screwing around animals.

Oh, yeah, I blocked a bus one day and again, that's what I'm saying. Then that's when they get into we don't want them on the truck, the streets early this time, blah, blah, blah. And these little kids get off the buses because now I held them up on the block and they're blowing the horn. They have their own police, their own people, and they tell you, you got to move the truck. I'm like, dude, I'm almost done with the block. I'm not moving the truck. Yeah, the little kid gets off and he's flicking me the finger.

Wow.

He's like, five. I'm like, what are they?

No respect.

What goes on here?

I don't know. I got a bunch of Jewish friends. I mean, orthodox Jewish friends, though. Them OJS, I think, or whatever. Yeah. I don't know. I shared a room at a I was in a halfway house with an orthodox dude one time, and he brought his own fucking grill. He was dressed like Biggie Smalls at a Masonic temple, and he was sweating, and if you said pussy around him, he'd fucking he couldn't eat his eyes. Oh. He'd open his mouth and fucking put his tongue out. His guy was a perv, and he was grilling his own meats in his fucking room or whatever, with the sunlight or whatever. I don't know what the dude the guy would have bait. He's in there fucking making burn ins or whatever. Fucking at 04:00 a.m. When I lost as he can with a magnifying glass. Yeah, the shit was fucking unreachable.

A cloud comes, he's like, Damn it, they ruined again.

And it was Arizona, dude. This day, he showed up on the porch, literally. I'm not joking. It was 104 degrees outside, and this guy is dressed, bro, like, cruella deville, bro.

This motherfucker, they wear some gear.

Oh, this guy had been raising some fucking mixed dogs in his coat, bro. This guy, he smelled horrible. What ethnicity probably has the worst smelling garbage? Would it be orthodox, you think?

No, it was all the same. It's garbage, man. Once you throw it in there, it's all blended in. And like you said, during the summers, it was grueling. Like, people would walk by, like, covering their faces. That's how bad the truck smelled. Sometimes. Once you're in it, you don't know anymore. You don't smell nothing anymore.

You get used to it.

So used to it. Cat urine was the worst for me. It was awful because you would rub up on a bag that a cat just pissed on, and like you were saying with the truck, now we get in, me and my partner, and I know, like, bags stay far away from me. I'm big enough guy long enough arms. I kept that shit away. I never let the bags touch my legs. And I would look at my partner, I'm like, you got hit? And he's like, what do you mean? I said, you don't smell that? Because now you get in, it's even cold out. You close the doors, put their heat on, and you smell that turn cat piss up. Disgusting. It's the worst smell out there.

Yeah, I remember we used to get a bowl of cat piss, and we would do a hairdryer over it just to fucking piss my sister off. Do it under the door by her room. Fuck her, dude.

Awful.

Fuck her. Wow. So there's no time of year, really, when the trash smells worse.

Well, the summers are bad.

Just the summer's overall, but yeah, there.

Was some point you would open up a lid, and if it was sitting there with maggots and stuff, you get a kick. And that's another smell that was pretty brutal. But other than that, you got used to it.

Was there a borough of New York where the trash smelled the worst, do you think?

No.

Okay.

All the in Staten Island, there was a movie theater not far from the dump before they closed it. It was awful, the smell. And they were building houses like crazy right there. I'm like, how could people buy and then I became a garbage man, and then I don't smell it no more. Staten island don't smell no more because we would get shit on all the time by, you know, all that, but you just didn't smell it, dude.

There's a lot of pride for people that live on trash. I think there's something almost fucking something pretty amazing about it in a weird way. Like, when I was growing up, we would burn the trash in a ditch. That was the big thing in our area. You'd bring everything out. You burn it in a ditch. The kids, we would get wet, hose each other down, and then run through the smoke till you look all black. You'd be out there like, that's different. It would be like yeah, it wasn't like doing blackface. It was just like burning trash. But you definitely looked a little smoky by the end. It was just something to do. What were we talking about.

When I went out to Staten Island?

Oh, yeah. And what the difference is?

Yeah, it's just like I said, you deal with a different person now. Well, you're dealing with people who own the garbage like it's their house. House to house to house to house. I tell people all the time I knew things about you from your garbage that you do not think I know.

Really?

And I wasn't picking through it right? When you put that stuff in, it breaks up the bags. I knew when people it was your wife's time of the month. Oh, yeah, my wife will be disgusted by that. But you knew it when the bags ripped. Your life is in front of me, and I ain't picking through but what.

You and it's crazy how quick you see things so fast. Dude, I did this game one day. I went in New York City, right? Downtown. I went in the city. I think I was on the Lower East Side. And I did this game with people. I said, I'm going to open a bag of trash. You smell it, you take a whiff out of it, right? Just a random bag.

Okay.

And if you can guess three items that are in it, I give you $100. Right? So these people, they all thought I was like, that the bags. I had, like, brought them from home or something, put them together, whatever. I was picking these bitches up from the fucking corner.

So you didn't even know if they would be right?

Bro, I had no idea what was in them, dude. So we had people we crack a bag of fucking people are taking hits off of it, dude, over there off of an Alphabet City, bro, that was.

Nasty stuff down there.

Yeah, we made a video of it online. But anyway, that was something we did with trash in the city. What about the was there any ladies that tried to flirt with you that ever happened on the route? Once you got into the houses? Like any fucking bin babies or any.

Fucking they didn't notice you trying to.

Run that can clam out on you, bro.

Well, that's why I wore the shirt. This shirt is 25 years old.

Really?

I was going to give it to you, but it says, Put out your can, here comes the garbage. I used to sport this shirt all.

The time, and it's a sexy lady.

With her butt out with her ass hanging in the wind.

I like that.

But no, listen, you didn't see people unless you were waking people up and in their way. Other than that, it was crazy because nobody even knew. They never acknowledged you.

Wow.

New York hated you because you were loud until I don't remember the year, but like the New York Post or Daily News, one of those shit papers in New York, they posted how much money we made per year. That was it. Now everybody wanted the job.

Yeah.

When they see you're making six figures picking garbage up, oh, well, my guy this, and now all of a sudden they know you're around.

Wow. Once the money comes, huh?

But prior to that, they could care less.

That same thing happened with Joe Rogan, in a way. I think once he got a spotify deal and people saw like, oh, he's making money, they all jump on his tracks. Now. They all fucking want to write articles about him, say he's racist, that is using his know.

Exactly.

So you guys pull in six figures a year with the job, right? Starting first year, it gains traction, no?

Yeah. My first year, I think, if I had to guess, 27 grand. But just with the overtime, with the winter, with the snow and all that stuff, I think my first year, I made like almost 60.

Wow. Okay.

So it almost doubled, right? Because you have to be there. New York doesn't stop. So you're on call all day. Twelve hour shifts. I've worked up to 31 days straight. Twelve hour shifts, 31 inches of snow here, 2ft of snow here. It happens. But you can make that money. I just had a guy, just retired. He was making almost 200 grand.

Wow.

Picking garbage up. But he would do twelve hour days every day. Overtime he would eat up. Kind of hated his family. And you get it when you meet these families, you're like, yeah, this is why this guy works all the time.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, this says bottom 20% 36.3. This must be old, though.

No, I think starting right now is like 70.

Okay. The average salary for a garbage collector in New York is around $76,000 per year.

And that's not overtime, right?

So that's not having your overtime. So that's where you can get up to 100. You can get six figures. Wow. Almost double that easy. Wow.

Guys are doubling it easy.

Remember when they had the fad of, like, the kids meet the garbage man?

Yeah. That was like when we were growing up. I used to love throwing beers to the guys, and it turned out like then I come to Staten Island, those guys were still on the job. I was like, dude, I remember you. He's like, yeah, you were that fat little kid throwing shit off the top of the because I still lived on the same block. So they kind of were like, yeah, we had, like, a porch out front. I dropped the beers down to the guys. But like I was saying, with wearing like, they didn't wear uniforms back then. Dude had, like, a wife beater on and, like, a pair of shorts.

Oh, yeah.

Just gaggling through the streets.

Yeah, dude's wearing a fucking Snorkel in a fucking exactly.

Some questionable stuff back then.

Dude wearing a Snorkel in a bathrobe over there.

But like you said like I was saying, they didn't acknowledge you. Yeah, you were there. You picked the garbage up. You left.

You're kind of the invisible man.

Exactly.

You really are, because yeah. Nobody wants to get that close. People kind of want to pretend you don't exist unless you're making noise. People don't engage yet you're kind of.

The invisible man until they realize you were making money.

And then suddenly like, oh, look at this rich asshole rolling through.

I got to put more garbage out.

Yeah.

And then they would turn into, well, it's your job. Pick this up. Here, take this. You have to take this.

Yeah. What's the worst parts of the job that you get that kind of stuff is people telling you, like, yeah, they.

Always tell you, oh, yeah, I pay your salary. So we always used to keep, like, nickels and dimes in the truck, and I'd be like, hold on. I'll give you your money back. Because they would always say, like, all right, each person gives you a nickel a year. And I would throw the nickel at them. Here's your money the fuck out of my face. You got to take this. The guy's whole apartment is out there.

Yeah.

It's like, dude, go. No. And I would always respect the person to come out if you just said thank you or even gave us water, because you weren't supposed to take money and all that stuff if you just said thank you and acknowledge me. Like I said, that nobody knew us. Thank you. Went a long way with me. I'd take everything. I don't care. But when you look at me like, oh, I pay your salary, and look down to me, yeah, go fuck yourself.

Yeah, agreed.

Your stuff would stay there for months.

Oh, yeah. I'll fucking put it back in your house.

Yeah, I'll throw it right back on your curb, dude.

I'll take it. This is how spiteful I would have been, bro. I would have picked it up and the next day fucking brought it back. Fucking put it back on the guy's doorstep.

I got rid of this yesterday. Where'd this come back?

Make him think he's crazy, bro. What's that?

You had that a lot. People were very people thought they owned you. Yeah, I pay your salary and all that junk.

Fuck you. That's what I say to that, bro. Fuck them. Yeah. I think we always have respect for people that did something. Well. We lived also. It got a little rural by us. So sometimes you'd have the bootleg garbage man who started their own service, a guy who took a truck and just put three wooden plywood walls on it. You know what I'm talking about?

Make the back of the truck a.

Little taller, fit more bags, just load it up. Our neighbor was one of those guys for a while, so his truck would always be out there, but he'd go do the rural routes and get him a little bit of garbage.

Well, because we used to take everything. You're talking couches, beds, everything. Even with recycling, you're taking refrigerators and all that stuff.

Really?

Everything? We took everything.

Until what year?

No, still to this day, you had to take everything.

So you'll throw a refrigerator in the back of a garbage truck?

Yeah, well, our recycling trucks, they went to two sides.

Oh, for recycling.

It's so annoying. Yeah. But there was some that didn't fit in the small side with the recycling trucks now that the city gets so now. Yeah. They would call you up, be like, oh, you got to go and throw it in the regular garbage truck.

Wow. So a recycling truck is a different truck.

Different truck. It's split down the middle. There's, like, say, 28 inch side on this side and a three foot side on the other side.

Okay.

So the truck is split into two. So you could pick up paper, and you could pick up metal, glass, any stoves, stuff like that, you put on the other side. Yeah, on the metal side.

Okay. Wow. And how do you decipher that? Because a lot of times people just put a recycling bin, a recycling garbage can out there. Right.

Got to be separated in New York. But I didn't give a fuck, right? We used to drive early days, we used to open the sides of the truck. There's a door. So the mechanics and stuff can get in there and work on the compactor and stuff. So we used to bring the blades all the way home, open the side hatch and drive the streets. And while I was driving, you were in the back loading. But I was throwing stuff in the side of the truck while you were in the back. So we were just loading the whole truck, the whole block, with whatever. I didn't care. I just threw it all in.

Yeah.

It all winds up in the same place, does it? A good amount of it. The paper is recycled 100%. Everybody gets crazy with the bottles and the glass and all that. Unfortunately, I tell people the truth and they never wanted to hear it. Cans and stuff? Yes, metal. They recycle the bottles. They just break up and winds up in a landfill.

Wow.

Colored glass was like gold to them.

Really?

And they stopped using it for everything. Glass is cheaper to make than it is to recycle and all that. It's too expensive.

So colored glass what do you mean? Why was colored glass so valuable?

Just because now you had to pigment it and put color into it, the regular glass. So it costs more to make. So, like, if you got, like a green glass, it already has the color in it, so they melt it down and use it again. But they stopped using all that, like all the beer bottles and stuff?

Yeah.

They really don't use that.

I remember Sprite used to come in, like a green bottle.

Yeah. No more.

That was crazy, bro. You got you a fucking Sprite, bro.

Now they're jamming you all up. You think it's sprite zero now?

Oh, yeah, sprite zero. Dude. Come out the closet, bro. I want full sprites.

Give me full. No caffeine.

Yeah, I want pure sugar, bro. Were there some accidents with the trucks? How dangerous did it get for people? Because if people didn't have commercial driver's license and they're driving those trucks in the beginning, was there a lot of, like, casualties? Was there?

Yeah, guys would do. There were a few guys that passed away, and it was more just people's stupidity. I had one guy, I don't know why he was holding something going in the truck. Wound up ripping his arm off the truck.

It pulled him in.

Dude, literally, next time I saw me, I had like this mechanical, like, three finger metal thing.

Oh, like a skill crane.

Yeah. He was like picking up, like, teddy bears and shit.

Get you a fucking cab.

I'm like, dude, what are you doing? Well, my hand got stuck. He said his hand got stuck and sucked him in. And it literally just his arm off. Yeah.

Is that a blade right there? Wow.

Yeah, dude. Another guy was holding paper in New York. They would wrap the bundles of paper before all this technology came out. Now he used to pick massive bundles up, and he had the paper in the back of the truck and literally almost slid off all his fingers because his fingers were caught in the string. And when the truck closed, it tightened the string up so much, dude looked like a ring got caught on all four of his it was nasty. That surgically fixed his fingers like it was a nightmare.

Wow.

So there's some dangerous ends to it.

Trash collector dies after inhaling discarded.

That's the guy. I think that's the Staten Island guy.

Let's see what happened. New York City sanitation worker died yesterday after he inhaled the fumes of a corrosive acid from a discarded container that burst under the compacting blades of a garbage truck making routine collections in Brooklyn.

It might have been Heaney, I think might be the last name.

Let's see. The source of the acid was not known as of last night when this article was written. This is in, I think, 2006. Touched off. A second sanitation worker was injured in the incident, which brought the mayor and sanitation commissioner rushing to the burn unit of New York Hospital. Touched off. The Brooklyn attorney office said the investigation is continuing depending on what evidence is obtained. Anything else? Wow.

Yeah, because somebody threw a battery, a car battery, like in a bag. Like I said, you don't know what's in there. And when it cycled, it exploded all over the dude. And that should have killed you. It was it was shitty. I think I want to say his last name was Heaney, but I could be wrong. I wasn't on the job yet, so I didn't know. Hanley. That's it?

Wow. Yeah. What, is there some other injuries? Like, what about people? Ever hit pedestrians with trucks and know.

Listen, I stayed away from all that, but there were definitely guys that did not good people's. They clip people's toes in shit. Manhattan. I used to yell, watch your toes. Because people watch your toes.

That's what you're yelling?

Yeah. Because, you know, on the corners of know, everybody's standing in the fucking sidewalk, like standing in the crosswalk. It's like, dude, watch your a guy there was a guy in New York, I want to say it was Manhattan. And dude just rolled and it was his partner just rolled right over his feet. It blows out your uh uh.

Yeah.

When they rolled right over his foot.

Boof.

His ankle blew out because of the pressure. Yeah. The weight of the truck.

Oh, my gosh. That's like a cartoon.

It's nasty. Nasty. Shit.

Wow.

I had a buddy fall out of the truck. He was having fun in the truck. Let's put it this way. Older guy and just dude made a left and he rolled out his leg went under. I mean, they graphed his foot. They graphed everything. They saved it, but it looked like he was wearing a moon.

Yeah.

You know, got off the job, but anytime I saw him. After that. Some fucking like four times the size.

Some Neil Armstrong fan dragging a marshmallow around. That's crazy. Yeah. My dad had this buddy and one of his feet you used to see this commonly back in the day. Somebody would have that big sole on their shoe. Somebody be uneven. And my buddy had his friend and his friend would always stand on this little piece of cement because it made him even, bro. He wouldn't leave it in the neighborhood, bro, my dad's neighborhood, he'd like kind of walk around it, like pivot around.

It, but he fucking never leave.

That the second he left off that bitch, bro. Yeah. The world got kind of everything turned into a teeter totter for. Wow. So it's really fascinating. I'm trying to think of some other.

Yeah, I think you had Mike Rowe on. And he was one of the guys that years ago listed the sanitation as like one of the ten deadliest jobs.

Wow.

And it's just more dude. You'd be shocked at how many people don't see the truck that literally just drive into the back of the truck. And if you're back there, it's a wrap. There was a lot of clothes, so.

There'S a lot of danger that happens. Like that people just hit in the back of the truck. The guy's standing back driving, not paying attention to you.

It's craziness. Everybody's in a rush, especially in New York. And you're no pain, no mindless. So they're just driving around. I mean, the truck can't get any bigger for you not to see. And people driving to the back of the truck all the time.

Damn.

I had a dude hit me once. Literally, I see him I'm at break and I see him bouncing off cars coming down the road. And I'm like, what's this dude doing? Like ping, ping, ping. I jumped over, like in the truck, there's like this cab, like this little thing where the engine is. I literally was jumping onto my partner, and he was like, what's going on here? Like, he thought we were getting frisky at eight in the morning. Next thing you know, boom. The dude drills the truck. Literally drives right into the driver's side, like gas tank right near my I'm like, what the hell? Turned out the dude, old dude was on all kinds of medication.

Oh, yeah, dude. My dad sometimes would let he would go he'd like, get into the post. He'd go to the post office, right? My dad was real old when I was born. He was 70. At 80 years old, he's taking me on rides like, I'm going to go to the post office. And I think he didn't know kind of like how age it worked or whatever because I hit like a gross Burt. And he's like, will you just drive around? I can't legally park here. Will you drive around the block for me? And I was fucking ten years old, dude. I think I was five three or something. I'd hit a little growth spurt and his vision was bad. And so I'm fucking next, you know? I'm driving this Delta 88, bro, right? This big boat, no power steering, bra. Fucking go around the block, dude. And I don't know how big the block is. I go around, I fucking hit seven coins, bro. And this thing was a piece of.

Shit, like a battleship.

Oh, my dad, he bought it off a couple of brothers, and it had some 22s in the back right around the corner. So he was always listening to NPR, like with bass and shit. The whole life didn't make any sense, dude. I fucking hit six cars. I could finally get back around to pick up my dad. He had no idea.

Where you been the whole car?

No idea, bro.

God.

What about the rat problem? What kind of animalia do y'all run into in the garbage route, bro? And be honest with me.

Yeah, no, just different areas. Had different staten island was like mice. You'd see some decent size, like seven inch, eight inch rats with a nice sized tail.

But that's what I'm talking about, dude. Fuck mice is just a gay rat, I think.

Yeah, they're just babies. Yeah, I'm just running around like idiots. I used to squish them with my feet.

Really? You could step right on them.

Yeah, they were in the bags, and then when they come out and they assholes and eyes popping out all over. Oh, yeah, it's nasty. But I stopped doing that when I got a little older.

Yeah, I think you grow out of that. And the government will put lipstick on them and then fucking kill them with fucking Ozempic or whatever. So who the fuck you're? The bad guy.

Exactly. I stepped on a few mice. Kill me now.

Now, what about the rat problem in the city? You hear about it? They allegedly signed a Czar to got this lesbian cheese hunter up there now fucking trying to kill him, right? Which is fine, more power to her. If she wants to fucking show up and go to war, I'm game. Right, but how bad was the rat problem in the city?

Even with that, like, let's be honest, you ain't getting rid of them. There's no way. And there were some big boys up there.

Fuck yeah.

The UN. Because you're right near the water there.

Oh, I saw one wearing a Charles Barkley jersey.

Dude, I wouldn't doubt it up there. So there's one night we're working, picking baskets up. You know how there's corner baskets in Manhattan? So there's just a basket on every corner where people throw litter and know oh, yeah. So there's all lined up in front of the UN. So we're doing the baskets. It was early in my career.

And is each basket a different country.

Or no, no, it's just a basket. Like all along the UN. There's just more there because they don't want litter.

Okay.

So there's just more baskets in.

I'm thinking it's like the Epcot center.

Of trash or so, but it's the Epcot center of rats. I mean, dude, I'm talking boys.

Yeah.

And, dude, I dumped the basket. So it was quick. Once you started doing the baskets, you spin off the truck. Quick bing, bam, you're right back. Like, literally takes me 33 seconds to dump a pail.

Oh. So you throw it, dump it and it's back. Boom.

And then you jump on the truck. We still had the steps at the time. So I see fluttering going on. Dude, I mean, with the tail, this thing had to be 18 inches.

Oh, yeah, that's probably went to Rutgers.

Yeah, he was deaf. Fullback. Big boy. So, dude, I'm working with this dude, I'm jump off the truck and, dude, I'm running along the truck, away from it. Dude, I'm just running. He's like, what are you doing? He looks next to me, I'm running. I said, there's something in there, man. He's like, what do you mean? So we went back there with, like the broom and the shovel to kill it and just cycled it up. I was like, I ain't fucking around with it.

Wow.

Because you would have, like, possums and stuff. Like as you cycle it, like a little garbage will fall down and it gives them a little escape. So they pop out. The little mice used to do that all the time.

Explain it to me. I'm not understanding it.

So when the cycle goes up in a truck, sometimes there's like bags and stuff right at the edge that you just pushed up.

Right.

So when you open it again to now bring the next set of garbage up, you would literally get like a bag or two will flip down, and it'll push garbage up towards the ledge of the truck. And an animal, that's like their escape route now.

Oh, I see.

So I'm like, Fuck that. I ain't doing that. So I told him you go back there and he had time on a job, so he was used to it.

He was used to it. So sometimes it'll be cycling. You'll see an animal just pop out of there.

Yeah. Possums. Raccoons. The mice, the rats, they literally just jump right out.

Yeah. Now, what's the most gang? Here's one right here. Garbage man saves kittens from trash. Jesus.

Yeah.

I mean, Shauna Tavare probably doing you'd be shocked, man. Yeah. Anybody ever try to put a baby in the garbage? Bro, I won't tell anybody. No, and I'll know if you're lying too.

All right. So I had like a year on a job, got hurt. I had this shoulder done surgery. So they do like this mail carrying thing where you bring the mail to lower east garages. So you go to the main area, pick up all the mail, you give it to each garage so I pull into one of the garages. I forget somewhere in Manhattan, too, I think.

Oh, so it's a job. You can still work even though you're injured.

Exactly. So I'm like, in rehab, coming back, trying to get my arm back together. And next thing you know, I walk in the garage, everybody's in Tyvek suits, white Tyvek covered, head to toe. I got a T shirt and pants on. I'm like, what the fuck's going on?

There's a Shriners meeting, right?

So there's a garbage truck emptied out on the floor because they got a phone call that a girl put a baby in a corner basket. I don't even know if they found it.

Nobody puts baby in a corner basket.

No, nobody. But they did it. Listen, they were nervous, and that's what they do, these kids.

Yeah, man. It's heartbreaking, man. What about this video right here? Garbage man saves kittens from trash. Let's get a little volume on it. This dude cutting into a little look like he cutting open a bag of coke. This guy. Oh, he heard something. Oh, it's an eight ball of cats, bro. Damn. Baby kittens.

They heard the meowing.

Gosh.

That's people for you, man.

That's unreal.

That's people.

Yeah. What do you learn about society? What are some of your thoughts on society? Does it give you a negative look at society? Does that kind of thing even happen as you work in that industry?

Listen, it'll change your mind real quick, too. Just there's strange people out there, man. It's some crazy shit that you see in the garbage. That reminds me of the time I smell a skunk. I'm like, what the fuck is that smell in the back of the truck? Like, that's something OD. So now I could smell it. And there was, like a skunk in, like, a little pathmark bag like that. We used to call them, like, the little plastic bags tied up and everything. And I'm thinking to myself, like, who the fuck took the time to grab this skunk, kill it, and then put it in a bag? Yeah, it's like people ain't right to even think of doing that. Who's playing with skunks?

Perverts, bro. Perverts, I think. I wouldn't do it, bro. Yeah, people get rid of any lot. Yeah. I'm trying to think of the biggest animal somebody could get rid of without you guys noticing. Probably black lab.

That was the yellow Lab, dude. I still to this day, I could.

See those guys crying.

Crying.

And were they gay guys, you think?

Yeah. Some would say yeah.

And no judgment. Anyway, bro, everybody yeah, everybody's got a gay cousin or son or father these days. You can't even everywhere in three generations, everybody's going to be just gay, doing.

Uber, REITs, dipping their toes into it.

Who knows, bro? What about on the home front? What is the home front life like for a sanitation worker? Is it tough on your home life is it easy on it. What kind of life is it?

The winters were tough. Like I said, if it snowed, you were stuck there. Twelve hour shifts, ten hour shifts.

When you say stuck there, what do you mean? Because it takes so long to get through the route?

No, it's just like if it snows, New York and I've been to here. I've been here when they had that ice storm, I think it was a few years back, everybody shuts down. New York. Don't stop. We're out there all night, through the night, twelve hour shifts, spreading salt, plowing snow.

So you guys do other jobs?

Yeah.

Okay.

I didn't know we clean all the streets, the snow, we do the salt spread and the front end loader work. We do all that stuff.

Really?

Yeah.

God damn. Shit. I guess if the rangers needed a Zamboni driver, they could put one of you guys.

I'd probably pull it off. Wow.

But I didn't know that you guys do all those other jobs.

Yeah, there's probably, if I had to guess, over a hundred different job titles on that job. It's just not garbage, man.

Right.

There's so many ranking. Like you could have a desk job. The guy who hooked me up with know, Johnny Lex, that was my boy. He had the desk job. And that's a job now.

What's the desk job like? What's that guy doing?

Nothing. He literally is just setting up the days. What's tomorrow? All right, let me get all the cards and the routes ready for tomorrow. Pretty much nothing. We call them tit jobs. It's a tit job?

Yeah. So they're in there just doing fantasy football. Really? Yeah.

And he's terrible at it.

Is he?

Yeah, he's owing six. I was talking to him last night. I'm like, the team's sad.

He probably had Aaron Rodgers. That's why he probably had an injury.

Yeah, I know. I don't think he did, but just sad. But there was a lot of and that winter aspect is a totally different animal because you're doing just say, three, four days, you could get six inches of snow, take you two, three days to settle in. Now you got to go pick all the garbage up that was left out for the last three, four days. So now every house that you'd normally do two days a week, now it's.

All double garbage for one pickup because you missed one?

Well, yeah, because of the snow. Exactly. Like Manhattan after a snowstorm.

Oof.

Bad news, man.

Really?

Piles and piles of it.

Of garbage.

Garbage.

Just unlimited garbage.

It's unbelievable.

You ever find somebody hiding in the garbage? You have to hit a bent, like hit a dumpster with a fucking wrench or something to get a homeless guy out of there. Ever.

No, I never had to do that. Nobody wants to be in the garbage in New York.

Wow. It's funny because in movies and stuff you always see this romanticized look of a homeless guy popping out of a dumpster. You know what I'm saying? Like that old kind of well, they're.

Around, but we don't do container work.

Oh, you don't?

That's privates. The private guys those containers on the street where those guys are sleeping behind. Yeah. No, that's all privates.

What about, like, a dumpster at a school or something like that's private?

Yeah, I didn't do that. But that's a whole different truck. Those are easy packs. So they have forks on the front that lift it over the truck and then compact it and behind them.

So you never worked with that?

I never picked that up. I drove them. I used to have to dump them, but I never actually picked them up.

So that's called an easy pack truck. The ones that have the forks on the back that on the front oh, yeah. That go right into those two slots on the side of the dumpster, and then they throw it back over the top. And whenever you throw that back over so sometimes just a party of trash come right down the front.

Filthy trucks. Disgusting. Disgusting. Sometimes the container come off, it'd be hanging out the side of it. Now you got to get somebody out, drag it off. It's a fucking nightmare.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then the other truck, the truck you drove more, had a cycler in the back that was just you throw them in.

Yes.

Wow. Bag fed or something. What do they call it exactly?

Yeah, it's like hand fed. You just bag in, and then when it gets full, you can't fit no more. You bring it down, it swoops it into the truck, compacts it, and then you fill it again and rinse and repeat.

How has the industry changed over the time?

Well, now they actually just put out the city, I think, this week that they're trying to bring out. Where? Homeowners, I guess if you associations, like, if you have a bunch of people because there are certain areas that were loaded with mice and rats because they were just near swamps and stuff like that. And house to house, you go grab a pail and they're scattering.

Yeah.

So now they're trying to put these little dumpsters, but plastic, not the metal ones you see at the restaurants and stuff around town. And now they have things on the back to lift, know? And my budy just said New York just came out with just it's never going to you know, Bloomberg tried to go to the arm that lifts it on its own. And one guy's in the truck and never gets out, never touches anything. I have that in New Jersey now at my house. There's just not enough space. There's too many people in New York, right? So, like, there's cars on top of cars, right. So there's no room for the garbage truck to get to the garbage.

Right. There's no room for the arm to get to the trash.

Exactly right.

Homeowners across the five boroughs will soon have to shell out at least $50 for new trash bins as the Big Apple tries to crack down on rodents by standardizing garbage collections. Under new rules announced by Mayor Eric Adams Wednesday, single family homes and small apartment buildings up to ten units will have to purchase the new cans from an as yet undetermined vendor in an effort to modernize the way the Big Apple collects its trash. Wow, somebody's bidding on that bet.

Money. Money.

Fuck.

It's crazy how much money there is in garbage.

Nobody thinks of it.

No, because you've forgotten. Nobody realizes it. But like, that somebody's going to make those pails now.

Yeah.

90% of the time it's guys that were retired big chiefs that are from the job, they go out and start these businesses because they had the bright idea when they were on the job, but they said, let me bring it out when I retire.

Right.

And then oh, I know. Let's bring it in. I mean, they do not dot. They pick up derelict vehicles. Sanitation does that too.

Oh, they do? Yeah.

Any vehicles that the foreman have to go out, tag them, write whatever, date. If the car's not gone off the street with like no plates and stuff.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

They send tow trucks out. They take them too.

Have you ever had to be involved in that?

No, I didn't deal with that.

But you've had to be involved with salting the roads or everything?

Salting the roads. Front end loaders. Big, like rubber tire machines used to have to fill the spreaders. And then I would have to drive down certain blocks where you couldn't get bigger spreaders. I would have to do dead ends with that. So you take a bucket back up a street, take a bucket back up pilot up back there. In the bad storms, you would get like a dump truck with you, and you would load the dump truck, and then they would dump it all somewhere in town, like near the water and whatever.

All the salt?

No, all the snow. On the bad storms, when the snow was so bad, when they would clean schools and dead ends and stuff like that, you would have to go around with the front end loader. I would have two dump trucks with me, and I would load the dump trucks filled with snow.

Okay, so we were talking about snow. I thought you're talking about spreading salt.

Well, it's the same kind of thing, but the spreaders couldn't fit down some of these blocks.

Okay. So instead of getting the spreader, they go and actually try and pick the.

Snow up with a front and loader.

Wow.

We call them big rubber tire machines.

Damn.

So I did that for pretty much the whole career, 18 years. I was doing that in the winters.

Oh, so you do that in the winter and then trash in the spring?

No, it's just when it comes up, you go you do it. But that was the fun part, driving the front end Lotus. Yeah, that was good times.

Oh, that's cool. Because you didn't have to get out that much.

No. And you were like saving people. That's when people loved you. There were areas where you couldn't get down. Like spreaders would slide off the road. Yeah. We would have to grow a record, drag them off of cliffs. It was crazy. The winters were nuts. And then they were like, all right, get a machine up there. And it was like, the hills are like this, bro.

Wow.

And I had this boss who always, where's Owen? What do you mean? All last names on the job. They'd be like, Where's Owen? Get him on the horn. Let's go. Get him in here. Because he knew I would just tell everybody, stay away. Because everybody's out there shoveling, throwing more snow into the street, making it more of a mess. And he knew, like, I'm going to buckle up and here we go.

Let's send the hitman in.

Let's see what get it done. Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah.

What type of attitude does someone have to have? Or what skill set does someone have to have? Or who would best be able to be a garbage man, a sanitation worker?

Listen, it's about the community. When it all comes down to it, I still took pride in especially those days with knowing that my mother had to drive my family, people, friends have to drive on those roads during the winter. So, yeah, there were guys that would hide and not spread salt. But like me, I was out there 12 hours spread salt. I had no problem with it. So it is a sense of pride that you work for the city, but in the same sense, I had a girl tell me once on the job. She's like, you were born for this job. And I didn't know how to take it. I was a little taken back. Is it a good thing that she's saying that, or am I a piece of shit? I was thrown away. I'm really thrown off. I'm just like, hey, thanks. Yeah, I had none to say. And she was cool as shit. She was awesome. Because we had girls that did the job, too.

Really?

Yeah, man.

Wow.

Some of them I'd rather work with some of them than some of the other guys.

Really?

Yeah. There were women out there that were hustlers.

Oh, yeah.

And then there were guys that you always thought you would go to. Oh, yeah, you come work with me. Jacked up. Yeah, he just doing that for the girls.

Really?

Help me. I can't lift this.

Trying to meet the women.

Yeah. They're going to the gym all day pumping iron, but they can't lift 100 pound couch. I used to swing couches in one shot.

Oh, yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. I think that's like, in some cultures that's like a wedding ritual or something. A man and a woman throwing, like I don't know what it is. Was there a lot of intermingling on the job or something?

You think there was some, yeah. I never partake in that.

A lot of ladies trying to put that dumpster.

Well, you got two.

Yeah, there were a few body dumpster, boy. Yeah, throw it on me.

There were definitely a few. And listen, you look at it like I just know, you get two pensions, both of you retire. It's a good life.

Let's go to Florida and stay. Was there ever a couple that met on the job and ended up getting married?

Yeah.

Wow.

Retired. One wound up being a boss. His wife might have became a boss, but yeah, listen, it happened.

Love happens everywhere. Yeah.

You're together a long time. You're out in the streets all day, and some guys and girls hit it off.

What are some other things people would collect out there in the trash? Anybody find anything really unique over the years? Any bone structure or anything like that?

Listen, you'd find all kinds of stuff if you were looking, like I said.

You didn't look, though.

I didn't have time for it. Like I said, I was running. I want to get done. I want to be out of the street, right? I don't want to deal with people. Like I said, the people that don't pay attention to you, they drive into you, right? It's just, you know, crabby days. But this one time, I'm with my know Louie, and we're picking up this apartment building and we open the gates and there's I think it was six or seven joker poker machines, and I'm.

Like, what the fuck is oh, yeah, video poker. Yeah.

Like in the know, they have to.

Use our allowance in.

Yeah. And so I worked at Bars when I was younger, and I knew, I'm like, oh, yeah, the money stashed underneath. So we opened them up. There was nothing there. But I'm like, you know what? I remember one of the bar owners having like a trap door, because sometimes the dollars, the $10 bills would just float in and there was this little tupperware in it, and it would float, float, and it fall perfect right down the slit. So when I saw that was still blocked off, we dragged them back to the garage. We beat the living piss out of these things with sledgehammers. My boss walks in, he's like, I'm not even going to ask what's up? Right? Dude, we got 360 apiece, $720. And they were the finest. Ten and $20 1980 bills.

Oh, yeah.

They were like right out the machine.

Oh, that's beautiful.

So, yeah, that was one of my better ones. But listen, you find things here and there. I always found something that somebody was throwing out. And I didn't have to dig like it was next to the curb. I found a moped once in Manhattan.

Oh, yeah?

Right on the side of a basket. The corner basket there. And it was probably from like a Chinese restaurant like that. It was like locked in to turn left. So who's going to just keep driving in a circle? Kids must have stole it and they realized we can't use this. So they left it at the corner basket.

Right.

So I told my partner, I'm going to take this. And as we're putting it, like I said, there's a little trap door. As I'm putting it in there, the cops pull up. So we're like and this guy I'm working with is like, damn, Owen, you'll fuck me all up. Now I'm going to get locked up for this shit, right?

We're stealing a little fucking yeah, stealing.

A moped from somebody from some Chinese kid over here. Yeah, the guy's laying there holding bags and nah. So they just pulled up. They were like, yo, is it run? I'm like, I don't know. I'm going to see. Brought that shit home, broke the steering collar and wound up getting it started. And I used to use it to go down to the bodega down the block and grab beers and shit. Yeah, that was a good find.

Yeah, that's a good find. Yeah. That's interesting, man. Yeah, I'm trying to think. I probably would like it. When I was young, I had to do the trash at the house. I didn't mind it just home sanitation or whatever, get it out to the curb. But I was a kid, we never got to see the real artists pull up in the early morning. We was still asleep or something or probably just getting up for school.

Well, kids love it too. Like they come out, they want to work the handles. Yeah.

Now what happened, kids? That was a fad for a while where a lot of moms would do the TikTok videos that a kid meets the garbage man. Were you around for that?

Yeah, I had a few. And I would get the kids stuff, like shirts and stuff. I would always give them back. I would have kids that stand at the glass door. The mother would hear us in the neighborhood, open the main door. And then there's like a sliding like a screen door with glass. And the kids just used to sit there. And I loved it. You would get parents all the time, like, oh, of all people, my daughter loves you guys. Like little kids, I don't know. Kids are fascinated with it and it's awesome. But at the same time, it's like the parents will probably like, don't do that. Don't grow up to be a garbage man. Yeah, because they don't realize the money in it. Right.

But now more people are going to know. It's a good business. It sounds like you. Got to keep a positive attitude, though.

That's it. Listen, the day goes by so much easier if you just get through the work. You have a good partner, good relationship with your partner. It's awesome. There's so many other shittier jobs. I would take that over any city job in New York.

Really? Yeah.

Like, you got the firemen, they're just wearing t shirts, trying to get free stuff.

Oh, yeah. And they're fucking let's be honest. They're making shit. They're just eating franks back in there.

Exactly.

No judgment. I love these guys. Yeah.

No, 100%. My brother in laws, one's retired, one's still on. I got a lot of friends that do it. I just bust their chops all the time because they're always wearing a fire department t shirt. I'm like, dude, you got no other.

Clothes in your yeah, definitely. They fucking yeah, and then you light a fucking match, and they're over there beating up a birthday cake just to fucking flex fireman's here. Yeah.

But meanwhile, I laugh. I'll talk about my brother in law's quick. My wife's brothers, they'll come to my house, and I got a fire pit in the yard, dude. It's like they're trying to light my house on fire. Like, bro, don't you put these out. Why are you starting this shit this big, and I got, like, a tin roof over it, metals melting. I'm like, dude, what's the point of this?

Yeah, your bird feeder, bro. You look in your bird feeder, you got a fucking grilled sparrow.

Yeah. It's like, dude, what are you trying to prove? Are you trying to put another fire out here? Do that on their time, not mine.

A lot of firemen are closeted pyromaniacs. Pyromaniacs? Arsonists, barn burners, whatever they're called, bro. Flame babies, whatever they call them, bro.

Crazy.

Oh, yeah. A bunch of fucking kerosene mammals, bro. They don't give a fuck, dude, they'll fucking drink kerosene and then blow a fucking flamethrower. They don't give a fuck, dude.

Them guys and the cops, it's tough, man. I feel bad for New York cops.

Do you?

I got a lot of know. Listen, there's bad apples all over this. I don't care what industry you're in. People are idiots. The way they act, the way they treat I was it's just crazy how they treat New York cops. Like, when I was growing up, you respected the cops. That was it. You shit on the garbage, man. You respect the cops. But now it's like, I just don't get it. So those are two jobs I don't even want.

Yeah, I think the media has let a lot of that happen. I think a lot of the same types of folks doing a lot of crime that don't have any respect for police officers. I think you have a lot of kids raised with no families, no parents, that don't have any respect for anybody. And the people that were supposed to be in their authority, they in fact hate authority because they never had any. So it's like the second they see a cop yeah, it's heartbreaking, dude. What a lot of those guys go through. Do you have a relationship with police, fire, the other municipalities that.

Civil service? Yeah, the civil service, yeah, of know, they always call up. They got to throw stuff know, during the know, the police department was always like, you had to go do the police department. And that was like, even the ferry in Staten Island, you had to go hit that with the plows and everything. Get all that salt, spread it know, I would always go to the fire departments.

You take a spreader onto a ferry?

No, it's like the ramps to get on the ferry. So, like, where all the buses come in. Yeah, you have to hit all those ramps. And I mean, it's nonstop. It's like one truck does that all day, goes up and down a main road, and then comes back and hits all those bays to make sure that all the buses I had this bus back into me once. I'm like, dude, you didn't see this big truck? Like, I got blinking lights everywhere. Oh, it's my fifth day on a job. I felt bad for the kid. He probably got fired. I did feel bad for him, but they drove right into the plow. I'm like, oh, man, but yeah, you respected each other. And I got pulled over a few times here and there for stupid shit like tint in my windows and stuff like that. All right. Don't worry about it.

Basic Asian crimes. Really? I call those. Yeah, every time I get stopped for that. What type of ethnicity is the garbage, man? A lot of times we had black and white men mostly. Is it every ethnicity or every it is every. So it's a real universal job.

Yeah, we had the most diverse in the city. That's the most diverse city job. And, dude, it was fun, man. I had a lot of fun.

Yeah. Met a lot of cool people.

A lot of cool people. A lot of fun people. A lot of guys I still talk to.

Oh, yeah, that's so cool, man. I think there is something about the camaraderie. What was it like when you got back to the house or whenever you what was that like? Was there a shop or something? Where would you guys all get back to and hang out? Was there, like, a bunk house?

Yeah, you always had an area where you would have couches, which there was, like, rules, like, oh, don't sit on it in your city uniform. Like, nasty. But people always did.

Did they?

Gross.

No, people would go do the trash route and then come and yeah.

And then come and lay down on the couch. It's like, dude, what are you doing?

Oh, my God, bro.

Yeah, that makes me and then, listen, even the bathrooms in some of these places. I wanted to do, like, a study and go to guys houses and see how they react, like, how they are around their families. Because I'm like, if you do this here and you don't clean up after yourself, what do you do? Home?

Yeah.

Does your wife wipe your ass? I don't get it.

The wife's probably glad they're not at home. Anybody ever have a wife that killed them while they were on a job? That you knew anybody?

No, nothing like that. Yeah, a lot of divorces. They used to say it's cheaper to keep them.

Really?

That was the going saying, like, oh, you get married, it's cheaper to keep them.

Yeah.

Guys coming in with, like, paychecks for a dollar 99, because that's how many baby mamas they had and everything.

Do you guys compete against other civil service groups? Like, is there like, a volleyball squad or anything?

No, we used to do, like, a softball thing within. On Staten Island. There's three garages. We used to do that for a few years, but nothing know other than yeah.

What? Does your son want to be a garbage man when he grows up?

No. Believe it or not, my oldest doesn't even remember me being a garbage man. I used to bring the truck. I used to bring that. But he was young, and now I want to say, I left Staten Island six years ago, so he was four. So you're still young.

So you had 20 years of service, man, you got it done. You look so young. I mean, you had 20 years of service. You got in and got out.

Retired at 41.

Wow.

Started my own construction. I do bathrooms, kitchens, all that stuff. And then my back went out, so I've been on the shelfer right now, getting back in the game.

Are you on pain pills or not?

No. Good. I don't mess with that shit.

Amen, brother.

No, I went on to medical marijuana for a while just to take gummies.

Okay. You got a piss too?

Yeah, I'm almost all right, let's go.

We're all pissed, and we'll come back up and finish up. Is that cool?

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Whatever you want to do.

Yeah. What does the retirement look like? What does a retirement look like? Do they give you, like, a watch or a jacket? Is it like, a big thing? You get a pension.

You don't get nothing from them. You get the pension.

You get a pension?

Pension, health benefits.

Okay.

All paid for life for your family until you're gone.

Wow, dude, that's incredible. So there's a lot of value there.

Yeah, everybody passes that over when guys are like, oh, I got to stay on the job. I got to do 25, because my pension is only this now, but they don't realize how expensive insurance is. At least two grand for four people. Me, my wife, my kids. Like you said, it's money.

Yeah. That's more people pay as much to insure themselves. Some people's more than a mortgage than their rent. Yeah. So you get that, you're done. What do you do? You're 41 years old, you just retired from a job. Pretty incredible. What makes you decide to go into home construction and stuff like that?

I grew up around it. My father owned a hardware store growing up.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, it's so cool.

So I had every tool in the shed. I had everything. And five, six years old, I was using saws because they didn't have no safety shit on it back then.

Oh, yeah. Somebody breaks in your home, you fucking skill saw them.

My mother would scream, get away from that. Because my father was at work. So I think I was eight years old. I was building a treehouse.

Yeah.

My wife's like me, and my mother like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm just building a treehouse.

You're like, this treehouse ain't going to build itself.

Exactly. Kicked a step, slit my head open. That was the end of the treehouse. Wow. But yeah, I just love working, like, with woodwork and all that stuff.

Is your father still alive?

He is.

Oh, wow.

Still doing it. Great, dude. But then he went into different things. He became a court runner as well. He used to run around for a law firm. He did that, and he started working with me. That was about three weeks. Couldn't take that shit no more. So he's still doing it. Home improvements. He's actually doing a bathroom right now. Oh, amen I'm like, dude, you're crazy.

Yeah, but he likes to work, though.

Yeah. Always is. You get enjoyment out of it. When I do kitchens and bathrooms for people, you feel more just the wow and oh, my God, you could do this.

I think it's something that's missing from my job, too, a lot of times is that physical feeling of completing something. That construction, the building. There's definitely something inside of us that wants to build or complete something, I think, for a lot of us, anyway. Yeah. My mother loves to work. I'm always like, mom, can I help you out? Can I do this? She's like, I need to get a new van so I can keep doing my deliveries. It's like, hey, look, you want somebody to be happy. You want them to do what they want. Yeah, people always there's always that thing. You don't want to end up being a garbage man. Did that ever make you feel bad? You didn't think anything about it? Was there any listen, everybody would say.

Oh, you're a garbage man. This and that. And like I said, always look down. But listen, I didn't give a shit. Yeah, I was making good money. You could do whatever you want. I don't give a shit.

And your job sounds honestly as crazy. It sounds fun.

Dude, it was awesome. Dude, I didn't even get into craziness, but it really was like, you're on your own. It's you or your partner. The garbage truck, you just pick up garbage. They give you a route here's, the blocks. It's a blast.

Yeah.

And dude, I used to clip on like a speaker. Six in the morning, you hear me coming down the block. That shit's blasting. Dance music, rap music, like, bumping, picking garbage up, having fun. I never bothered me once. There are people on the job that hate it.

Really?

Yeah. Oh, I don't tell people about this.

It's not HPV, dude.

Yeah.

I'm like exactly.

Somebody's got to do it. But, yeah, I loved it. We got into a real quick story, but my Budy's come flying up a one way, and now me and my budy Louie, we're pointing down a one way, they come flying up the wrong way. I'm like, what the fuck is going on here? I said, oh, maybe they're coming to help us. Because you used to do that all the time on the job. You call out the friends, hey, listen, my route's heavy today, right? Like, can you come and grab this block? Yeah, no problem. You always help each other. Two, they jump out the truck, they start whipping us with eggs. It was like around Halloween. It might have been Halloween, right? So they're chucking eggs all over the truck. Yeah, they're throwing eggs at us. And me and my budy Louie, actually, I'm throwing garbage, and Louie goes running by me. I'm like where'd you go. And then eggs start flying over my head. So now we fly up the block, they back out, they drive away. Right? So now you always have blocks that intertwine. So they go the main street, we go to the store, get two dozen eggs, we go all these shortcuts, cutting every light off.

We just ran. We waited for them where we knew they were going to go, and now regular earth is happening. Like, people are out at the there's a food store right there. There's people walking the streets, everything. Dude, we're hiding behind cars, and they pull up and get stuck at the light. Dude, we whipping yeah, they were covered head to toe. They couldn't get out. They were blocked in by cars where we had the chance to run. We had to go back to my mother's house and wash the inside of the cabs out. That's how bad it was.

Like Hagen Al. That's crazy, man. But no, that's fun. Yeah.

Nobody's even paying attention to you.

That's fucking fun, dude. Oh, that's cool. And could you listen to music in the vehicle or there's no music in there.

Yeah, no, you would bring radios in on your own. You would get like a radio or boombox or something like that, but you listen to what you want to do. Country music was my thing later in my role.

Yeah.

And when I first started, I used to get yelled at in one area because the music was too loud. Oh, yeah, because we would pump it. Listen, you got to make the best of your day.

Oh, I think so, too. Music helps everything, for sure. What's good and bad about the unions? Like, about unions, what is that whole set up? Like, can you talk about it? If you don't feel comfortable, that's okay.

Yeah, because you're in the union, right? Well, no, because now the city pays me. I'm not really in the union anymore.

Okay?

I'm done. It's not like I don't understand unions.

Fully, so maybe do you even have any explanation to me about what? Union? Because you were part of a union, right?

Yes, I was.

Okay, so how does that even for some jobs, you have to be in a union to have the job.

Yeah. Certain businesses run under union standards.

Okay.

Which means you have to pay dues and whatever it is monthly, you pay dues, and you stay in good standard within the union, and then you get into, like, iron workers and all that. Those unions are totally different because those unions are paying those guys pensions to me. When I worked for New York, yes, we ran for a union. Like, there's a different union for us. The fire department, the police department. Everybody has their own union. But once I'm done, I'm out of that union. And now the city just sends my like, they I have nothing to do with the union anymore. I don't go to don't, you know, picket line. I don't do all that nonsense no more.

Did you guys ever have to strike?

We couldn't. We were signed under the tail of law. Okay, so the tail of law, you can't strike. That's the one way you could lose your job. It was crazy, dude. The job. You could never lose the job. I'm dead honest. Literally. I knew guys that killed people that worked on the job. They went to prison. Their pensions are still waiting for them amen when they come out. But the thing is, if you were dirty, if you came up on drugs and stuff, on an accident and somebody got hurt, that's probably the only way you can lose your job.

I see.

But the unions, it's tough. Listen, they're great. It's expensive.

Yeah. What type of injuries happen on the job? To guys?

A lot. Like I said, I had my left knee meniscus surgery, my right rotator, my left clavicle, I busted up, and it was just from swinging bags.

Really?

Yeah. And then my back, of course, was just a matter of time once I stopped running around the streets picking garbage up. And now I'm doing my side. Well, not my side, but I was doing kitchens and bathrooms at my speed, not running 4 miles every day. My back just locked up on me, so I had to go in in the knife.

Was it hard to adjust whenever you retired.

Yeah, retirement, everybody. Oh, I'm going to retire. It's not worth it. That's why I'm going to start working again.

Back with trash.

No.

Sanitation?

No, I'm actually looking now just to get into something simple. Nothing crazy. I'm not one of those, oh, I need a big, high paying just something basic. I just want to stay busy. Yeah, because it's honestly, dude, it's not healthy when you're not around.

Yeah.

You're just sitting around good for two.

Or three days, and then you're like, oh, shit.

Yeah, I'll give it, like, two weeks. But then you're like, now what?

I do my lawn neighbors. You're taking a cat for a walk or something. You're like, what the fuck am I doing? Exactly. Yeah, you're fucking selling lemonade in your driveway.

Nickel of peace.

Yeah, you're out there selling lemonade from one to 02:00 p.m.. No, my wife.

Thinks I'm crazy because I take my lawn very seriously. What am I going to do? Guy who's retired does my lawn is fucking this. I need more water. I need more this. I need this. Oh, you're crazy. But what else am I going to do?

Where'd you meet your wife? Did you have her before you had the job?

No, I was on the job, I think, five years.

Wow.

When I met my wife, just a bar scene. I would bring something up, and she would kill me if I told you. Well, I'll tell you, but you can't play it on the sign. You can't play it.

Okay. I promise.

Met her there. Hello. That's about it. Then I started seeing around the bars, my buddy.

And were you partying back then, or.

No, I was partying.

Oh, yeah, that's me.

It was ugly.

Oh, bro, you find me in a fucking just a neighborhood fucking house party, snorting stack or two, fucking holding up a wall.

But. See, that's the old Staten Island. Like I said, we were in bars. 1516 years old, bro.

Oh, yeah.

So it started getting boring at 21, 22. But she was in college on Staten Island. She went to Wagner College, and she was always in the bars. My budy, God rest his soul, didn't do so well with that party and end. And he was dating her friend. So she was like, oh, you got to date Wayne. You got to date. Know, we finally I'm Wayne. Yeah, I'm Wayne. I'm here. I'm the guy. And then we just hit it, know? We started bullshitting. She would tell people. She'd probably still tell you today. Like, oh, he was following me around. I'm like you probably were. No, but I'm five years older than you, right? I've been in these bars for ten years longer than you.

Yeah.

Don't tell me that. These are my boss, right?

I think when you're tall, people can always see you wherever you are.

I'm always above, right?

So people are always like, oh, that guy's following me. Like, I'm not following. I'm just fucking over here.

Yeah, that's the shitty part about being tall. Right? That's a good point.

But now, when did you break when did you tell your wife that you were working as a garbage or sanitation work? Did you have to sit her down and tell her?

Oh, no, she knew.

Okay.

Yeah, she pretty much knew, but she must have.

It sounds such like for somebody to be able to get up that much, go do that job. I think there's a ton of admiration in it, probably. You probably have to start to admire, like, this fucking guy gets his work done.

Well, it's not easy in the sense that, like you say, it's a commitment for 20 years or more. I know guys, 25, 30 years. But it's more of like, you wake up and all you hear is downpouring, you still got to go. So it is. And I never wanted a pat on the back. Screw that. It was just more of knowing how your day is going to go from the minute you wake up hearing pouring rain or it's going to snow today. All right, well, I'll see you tonight at 08:00 at night. And you're leaving at six in the morning. I wouldn't get home eight, nine o'clock at night.

Wow.

So there wasn't listen, it was good money. I think her family knew, like, oh, yeah, I'm dating this guy who works for sanitation. Oh, that's a great job. It's a city job. It's known, right?

Yeah. You don't know that. I mean, that's one of the things that I'm so happy to learn, is like, you don't know that you can make good money. You don't know that there's a pension in it. You don't know that you can fucking have a good time. You don't know that you get over the smell. So you don't even notice it anymore.

No.

Wow.

Don't even notice it. And I could pick it out anywhere.

Could you smell different types of trash from certain amounts of feet away?

You know what it is? The maggot smell, like I was saying, is the killer. And there are sometimes I have a backyard. We eat outside, we throw the garbage, and I don't throw it out right away. It's like in a bag in a pail, dude, maggots will start crawling out of the pail.

Maggots are gross. I hate awful.

I used to be walking around, they're all in my arms. They would come out of the truck, splat on your arm like nasty. Blowing them off your arm while you're on the back of the truck. It's part of the job.

Was there like a wave of trash water that would come out on the cycle? I'm talking something Kelly Slater would flirt with.

So this woman, and I knew her from the neighborhood, I went to school well, I didn't go to school with her daughter, but I knew her daughter from high school. I used to hang out with her and her friends. And she comes out, she's like, oh, Wayne, I can't lift the sofa. And it was in the driveway. I'm like, yeah, I'll get it. Go back inside. downpouring. So we throw the sofa in and we throw bags in. Now she's right next to me and I'm like, don't stand there. Go somewhere else. No, I want to get she's trying to help. Give us something for taking this.

Let me give you a couple of muffins or something.

It cycles, dude, from head to toe. It was brown water. She literally had maggots, like, on her face. I was like, Get in the house and go take a shower. She's like, what is all this? With her eyes closed? I'm like, Just get in the fucking house. I told you, don't stand here.

That's a devil's backwash. I mean, you don't want that.

It just happened because we were uphill and the rainy days. Now you're lifting every pail that doesn't have a lid. Water is going in and it's just squashing around. It's like sewage. It's disgusting.

And all that water is there a catch from the truck or it all goes onto the street? Usually?

No. Well, we used to have drain pipes, but then they soldered like they welded them all shut because people would complain that trash was like, coming out on the street. So you had to deal with it. Our thing was you wanted to find a mattress at that point. So you would throw the mattress in, SOP it up, squeeze it, and it would SOP up all the water on the bad days.

So there's some strategies to the game.

Listen, just because we're garbage, man, ain't we ain't stupid.

Yeah, of course not. Yeah, I never think that those guys are dumb. I don't know what I think. I think it's just also the tough part about that job is if you're just like someone who lives somewhere, you don't get to go so quick. It's tough to get time with them. Cops stay around and fucking bullshit with you or whatever. Bullshit with you. Or like in a neighborhood. Yeah, when I was growing up, like some girl would know a cop would always be flirting with somebody's. Some lady or something. Her husband's missing or whatever. And they probably did it, but they ain't telling nobody. And now they're over here flirting and fucking splitting, cutting up donuts with a plastic knife on the hood of the fucking cruiser. Flirting with Miss Cheryl over here who's always all, dude, this lady by us, we get all fucking liquored up. She'd be drinking daiquiris and she'd start her car. She had this fucking car that was like a hot rod or something. She'd start that bitch with these short shorts and then lay on the fucking hood up, fucking say like, pervy shit out loud, like, don't you miss me?

She'd say, don't you miss me? And we don't even fucking know her. Like, who the fuck is this lady? Bitch, I'm eight. But we sit out there and watch her, bro. But yeah, cops, you get to you end up talking with them. There's some communication, but you all's job. It's kind of just hit and run.

It's hit and run. And even the guys I have now, I give them $100 tip during Christmas. Listen, I did the job. I know it sucks. The rainy days. Yeah, there's good days. There's a lot more good days than the rainy days. And once you get wet, you get wet, you're done. But I have people now tell me, what do you mean you tipped them? I'm like, Dude, these guys who pick my stuff up, that's private. They're not making what I was making in the city. And it's a lot, man. They're doing you a service. And they always say, everybody's always lying. Was, oh, well, that's their job. They have to pick it up. They got to take it. And I would tell people, this ain't my job. I'm here to pick up your household garbage. I'm not here to take all your demo from your construction job on your house. And that was always where the fine line of arguing, fighting with people? I ain't going to fight with you. It's garbage. Why are we fighting over garbage?

Right?

Just get a dumpster and I'm not picking this up. Yeah, case settled.

Done. Yeah. If somebody tried to go to blows with you or something?

Yeah, a few times.

Women or men?

Well, the woman, it was a husband and wife, and they had bags of tile out and the bags and get.

The fuck out of here with that.

She was just an asshole, this woman. And literally, the tile is sticking out the bag. So that's like razor blades, porcelain tile. I don't know if you ever been cut by porcelain. It sucks. And she's like, oh, you're not going to take this. Yeah, it's your job. I said, Listen, I'm not taking this shit. You can throw it in. Oh, fine, I'll throw it in. Yeah, look, big strong guy, sanitation worker can't throw it in, but I could. And she's rubbing it all up on a belly and shit. I'm like, Good. Look at you, you animal. Turns out she's a nurse.

Oh, yeah?

Nursing a fucking nurse.

Sorry. That's kind of mean. I'm getting mean.

No. And she says and it was fucked up, what she said. She was like, you know what? If you ever come into my hospital and you need help, fuck you. And now, like I said, I'm not a blow my top. It's garbage. I'm not going to fight with you. You want to throw it in, throw it in. I don't give a fuck. I said, you know what, bitch? Fuck you, right to her face. And I fucking closed the hopper, and she still had 1015 bags left, and I fucking drove. Away. I told my partner, drive. My boss calls. He's like, what are you doing? I said, let me guess. The nurse called. He's like, I don't know who the nurse is, but this woman called, and she's calling. She got three one one on the line, this and that. And I'm like, dude, this is what she said to me. So I blew my lid and told her to go fuck herself.

Yeah.

He's like, listen, my boss calls. He's like, just let her throw the rest of the bags in. I'm like, I don't want to go back there. So we went back anyway.

Wow.

Because I just don't want to deal with I don't want to fight on my other end. So I go back there. Now her burly, six, eight husband's there, and he gets in my face, right? And I'm like, dude, you do not want to do this. I said, listen, I'm a garbage man. That's all fine and dandy, but you don't want to see what other part there is.

Yeah.

My old 67 year old partner jumps out the truck, gets right in his face, starts pushing him. He's like, dude, you get the fuck back in the house. We'll throw the shit in. Get the fuck out of my partner's face.

Yeah.

I was like, good for you. Yeah, good for you. But you had that here and there.

Yeah.

People want to fight. It's garbage. What are we fighting over garbage for?

Yeah. So wild, man. It's interesting. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I don't know or want to understand about the job. Oh, if you had boots on, how do you keep the water from getting into trash water?

Like I said, you had rain boots, but those were regular boots, but just been soaked since. And you just put them, like, on top of your locker, hope they dry by the next rainstorm. Because if not, wet boots suck. But what are you going to do? This one time, this guy goes, why are you running through the street? It was raining. I say, because I hate wet boots. I turn around. I'm like, I think I said something like, I hate wet boots. You know that feeling? I turn around. I didn't realize he was in a wheelchair. I'm like, this motherfucker probably can't even feel his legs. I'm like, damn it, buddy.

Ain't got to worry about wet boots either.

Exactly. But that's the thing. It's like dodging. You tell people, I'm dodging raindrops. Yeah, but everything got wet.

Dodging raindrops. That's a good term. So your wife was good with it. What kind of line of work did she get into?

She was in medical sales. Medical device sales. So, like, when you have surgeries and stuff, she sold all, like, the nuts and bolts and stuff for a company, but now she's doing it back again. She had went just into sales for smaller companies, but now she's back doing medical device. She's always been a hard worker.

Yeah.

My wife, I'll give her a shout out. Wendy. She's always been a hard worker. Our kids are awesome. Parker and Jackson with an X. Jackson with an X. Yeah.

Like, Jackson, who's the starting quarterback for Ole Miss? Jackson Dart.

Is that with an X?

Is that J-A-X-O-N-J-X-S-O-N?

Yeah. No, we left the S off.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Fuck yeah.

Jackson, you're like Elon Musk wild and shit.

Okay. You got you a family.

Parker and Jackson. Yeah.

Have you enjoyed being a dad? Is it exciting?

Love it. Yeah, that's like the shitty part about now, going back to work. I love having my boys in the morning. Jackson, my six year old is hysterical, dude.

Oh, really?

Oh, from 530 on, bro. He does not stop. We joke with the ten year old. He joke all the time. We're like, dude, there's got to be an off button. And it's kind of dad, dad, dad. Do you see this dad asking me questions, like, while I'm getting lunch ready for them and breakfast. And it's just nonstop. But I love it. I don't mind any part of it. I do anything for them, of course, because they're my kids. But that's going to be the hardest part of me missing now, the mornings and then missing when they get home from school. That's going to be if I start getting home later, that's going to be the shitty part.

Yeah, it's a bummer. A lot of people have to deal with that. I think it's unfortunate that that's kind of how our society is. I wonder if we're supposed to be like that or what human beings are supposed to be like. You think about the old days of when people probably lived around a campfire and everybody was fucking home, but you were living around a campfire, too, so I think there was probably interesting. Yeah. What would you say to somebody who's thinking, like, could I be a sanitation?

Ah, more power to you.

Yeah.

Listen, like I said, it's a New York thing. If you live in the know in New York, not Tri State, if you live in New York, it's like a known thing. Take all the tests. It's the best thing. I know a budy of mine, his daughter came on. He waited long enough because his daughter did so good on the test that his daughter got on the job.

They got to work together.

They got to work together. It was a big thing by the city. They went out, and then he retired like, a week later. Listen, when you know what's coming of the job, you know how good it is. But you don't want to tell people. We always said, don't tell nobody how good this job is.

And here you are.

Yeah, there are grueling shitty parts about it, but the job was great, man. Yeah, I would never curse the job in that aspect of it.

Well, the fact that you had to win a lottery to even get a chance to take the job is freaking pretty unreal.

Well, now they don't do that no more. Now they allow all them to take the test and see how the lists are. But there's 120,000 people taking the test now. That shows you how much people want this. And somebody called me, they're like, oh, yo, my nephew took the test. I'm like, all right, how do you do? Oh, he's got a 93. I'm like, oh, what's his list number? 40,000.

Like, he's done Mike.

Dude, the job has to die six times over. There's 6000 guys on the job, so everyone has to go to work that day, die the next day, 6000 die. I said, if you got that kind of number on that test, you should look for a different profession.

Gosh, yeah, you're not it. What was it like during COVID doing trash? Do you remember?

I just retired.

Oh, you did? So you got to miss that.

The guys loved it. They did, they loved it. The money was crazy. These guys, I'm telling you. I know a guy, moved to Florida, 90,000 a year, 95,000 a year pension is he's almost bringing six figures and retired.

How do you get your pension to.

Be higher out of five years? They take your best three years and average it. So if this dude was doing two two, now they add that in and the average is 100 grand.

Wow.

So that's what you get half of it. So you get half of your base for three years. So this guy's got another buddy, 80,000 for the year. That's what he's going to get every year, plus the benefits and all that. He'll get 80,000 a year.

How long does a pension last?

Until you die. But you could we got to get it, but take the test. You got to get a New York address, though. Yeah, and I wouldn't do that, but.

I pay those taxes, too. They crush that's crazy, bro.

But yeah, that's part of it, though. You build up your pension to get to a point where you'll leave. A lot of guys don't leave, like I said earlier, they don't make it to but you could also sign off. Like, I could have given my wife, like, a percentage of my pension for the rest of her life, but it just didn't she's not going to count her.

Exactly.

Wendy's good.

Yeah, Wendy will be fine. Now, what if you die, like doing in the line of service or whatever? Does your wife get a flag or know what's that like?

They really don't. I mean, granted, it's a sad thing. They do a whole memorial thing, like line the streets with sanitation workers when they're bringing your casket. Like any fine. Yeah, but it's nothing like I told you, they get, I think, two years of service. So two years of pay. So if they get $120,000, that's it? You don't get the payment? No. Because you're going, yeah.

Wow.

So if that's not in line and then you die, like, if you're working, it's not the way it rolls.

Wow.

A guy. Unbelievable. They forced him to the clinic. We had this clinic at work where you would go and these quack doctors would tell you you feel better than they're like, they got the Jedi shit. Oh, you feel good. Go back to work. If you were hurt. And they forced this guy to work, and he fucking dropped dead on the Staten Island Ferry going to the clinic. I felt awful for his wife, and he was such a good dude.

And who has those crack doctors? The city. Because they want you back on the city. They want you back on the job.

I think the city what they do is they look for guys that lost their private practices, like as doctors, and they hire them for pennies on the dollar.

So they hire those people then? Yeah.

And they're quack doctors.

Wow.

They suck.

Yeah.

My finger I was picking up one night. And now you're running through the streets because it snowed. So now you're finally picking garbage up. And not a lot of people put garbage out after the snow. It's like they become like hermits and just stay in their house so they don't have garbage throughout. I grab a sewing machine, I throw it in the truck, and it still had a needle, so it fish hooked my thumb. So my whole thumb, like, flapped over this way, blood pouring down my arm. So I go have stitches. I literally still had the stitches in my finger. And they're like, oh, you could go back to work.

Wow.

So you have to kind of threaten them, like, all right, cool. Put your name here. Because when I get gangrene from work, oh, you could do desk work in the garage. I'm like, Dude, it's the dirtiest place on earth. A garage and a sanitation garage. It's gross, and it's just filthy. Nobody cleans them. So until you threaten them with like, oh, I'll get a lawyer. I'll sue your ass. All right, take another few days off.

Yeah. That's crazy. You have to fucking threaten to sue doctors who are just trying to get you back out there. You can't even take care of yourself. But then you have the other side of the coin where guys will sit out from fucking try to sit out for seven years.

Exactly.

Because they got a hip flexor.

He had, like, his cut that he would go outside the building and scrape it against the building outside and just go back in again. Another three days. Still bleeding, Doc. Okay, take another three days.

Damn it's.

Like dude. But then it sucks because there's guys that are fucked up. Yeah. They threatened my job once when I really hurt my back. I had my shoulder done and they were like, oh, we're going to force you off the job. Because I was on light duty and shit for like 18 months.

Wow.

And it's like, you're going to force me off the job? I'm in year 16. They didn't give a fuck. You're a number.

That's it. Any handicapped people do your job? Can people in a wheelchair be a.

Garbage man or no, not a wheelchair, per se, but I think there were some handicapped motherfuckers on the job.

Yeah.

The way they well, a lot of.

Autism people do the job, too.

I wouldn't doubt it. Listen, autism, it's nothing to laugh about, joke about. Both my kids are on the spectrum.

Oh, yeah, we're on it.

But they're awesome. I was probably on it. Like you said. They didn't test for that shit back in the day.

Fuck no. We were just on it.

Well, that's what they were like when we grew up. They were like, oh, he's either shy oh, he's shy or, oh, he's fucking crazy. Like, you were either one or the other. They never said, like, oh, yeah, he's going to be an astronaut. He's real smart. No, he's shy. Sits in the corner, the other kids are hopping off the walls. And that's what it was.

Yeah. You just hope that you had something in the middle. Probably. Exactly. Or at least that God gave you one of each.

All your ADHDs, elemental p's, all that shit.

Oh, now you got a fucking kid. Yeah. You don't even know, dude. It's fucking unreal these days.

The letters they come up with, it's almost like the other group. It's just like, come on, man. How many more letters are you going to everything.

I agree. Like, you got a guy who's fucking D-H-D-R-E-B-R-E-S-P-E-C-T-B-Q. I'm like, what? You're a fucking just say you're a gay Beyonce. Everything's fucking crazy now, man.

Dude nuts, man.

Yeah. Look at this. This is the term now. LGBTQ. I P two s A. Up, down, up, down, select, start. Select, start.

So you're a contrafan? No, it's crazy. You got a bat flying around in here?

Oh, yeah, bro. Free bats, dude, from the city. That's our pension, bro. Also, it's getting close to Halloween.

Yeah. So they're flying around, so we let them.

What was it like? What were some of the holidays like? Was there a holiday or was there a day of the year when you.

Got the most trash after any holidays? Because you would skip the pickups. So, like Christmas, if we were off, they would pick up the next night.

Okay.

And we used to have to go in twelve to eight to go pick it up. And honestly, they would steal garbage. My first year on the job, I never realized that guys stole garbage.

Wow.

Because on those days, you just had to load the truck as fast as you wanted to as you can. And then you were done for the night.

Okay?

So dudes would literally it was like smoke coming out of the tires, take off out of the garage, go throw hustle, get as much garbage as you can. And then just to be done, you load all top off your truck. You're done for the day. You're stealing garbage. Then you pull up like, now I don't know anything. I pull up to the and it's all gone. I'm like, oh, some nice person took all my garbage. But then they're like, oh, yeah. Now you have to go do more house to house stuff because they took all your big heavy sausage bags. So now you got to literally look for garbage. Like hide and seek for garbage and shit.

Wow. But it was just get as much as you could, fill your truck up, you're done. Yeah.

And that was during the holidays, right? I did y two K. That was a disaster.

Yeah. What was y two K like for a garbage?

I had three months on the job. They loaded us. They were like, oh, everybody go to this garage, manhattan Seven on the West Side. So I'm like, all right, cool. Near Times Square. Oh, we'll be out there for Times Square. It's going to be awesome. I was so happy. Happy. I signed up. And I'm looking at my watch. I'm like, yeah, I'm just hanging out here with you guys. Happy New Year. Because they didn't send us out there till like almost 130.

Because they didn't know if the world was going to end well, not even that.

They just let everybody leave now. Times Square. Then we come in and clean up.

Oh, yeah.

And by the time we got out there, dude, that was the first time I thought, like, wow, people really do like us. Like, chicks wanted pictures with us. Like with brooms. People taking pictures with chicks, drunk and shit. They're banging on the windows of the big bus that we come in. Like, oh, yeah, sanitations here. Meanwhile, I'm like, what the fuck, man? I thought I was going to be in Times Square. Ball drop sick. No, now I'm coming in, cleaning up piss bottles and shit on the floor.

Oh, yeah.

But that was a fun day. Yeah. Sandy, when that storm hit, Hurricane Sandy, that was a nasty one. We were going down there and helping people now. Their whole lawns, their whole front, their houses were covered. The lawns. They were bringing everything out, right? Couches, clothes. I felt bad for the living room.

Their whole living room.

Everything curved, everything. So we would do our regular routes and then run over there and help the people and hand pick the garbage up. So one day I told my boss, I'm like, dude, you're not down there. I'm down there. This is useless. There's piles of garbage. We need the big machines. So he's like, all right, listen. They agreed to it. So I convoyed seven front and loaders down there through the first block I turn on. I almost cried. That's how you feel for people? Like, piles of shit, man. Their whole house is on the fucking lawn, and we're just coming in to fucking throw it away.

You're a service, but even the service, you feel bad. Kind of painful.

Yeah, it was shitty. But you get knuckleheads in New York like, oh, yeah, the storm surge was coming. And they're like, oh, let's go see the waves. Yeah. Cool, dude. They were $100,000 cars littered all over the street with the windows down. That's how you knew they got caught, because there's this thing in cars now. When it gets water damaged, the windows go down automatically, so somebody can't get caught in water or something.

Yeah. Make everything easy on people.

Keys were in them. Everything. Like the key fobs. So this guy I knew, he said, do you have a chain on the front and loader? I'm like, yeah. So I had to hook trains up to, like, brand new fucking Audi's Mercedes and drag them to clear the streets. Boats in the middle of the road. It was like playing with tonka, bro. It was awesome. But I did feel bad in the.

Sense of, right, you still got to do all that. But still, it was like it almost yeah, it must have felt like another universe.

Yeah. I'm like, wow, I'm dragging $100,000 cars around by a chain, hook them up to the tires. The wheels are screeching.

What about during 911? What was that like?

That sucked. That was shitty. I didn't lose anybody. But it was crazy because my sisters sorry. My sisters all worked in the city, and we couldn't get in touch with them. So I had just gotten home from work, and I just worked twelve to eight. And my buddy calls me and he's like, dude, this fucking idiot just flew into the Trade Center. I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, I just got out of shower. I want to go to bed. I'm working twelve to eight. It's crazy. So next thing you know, another one comes. My father calls me. Never heard the guy cry in his life. And my buddy at the time had a boat. He's like, Get that motherfucking boat and put it in the water. He wanted to go get his daughters. And it was fucked up. The towns were crazy. They were fucking going after all these Indian guys and all. It was crazy. It was nuts.

Wow.

And I was supposed to go down there with a big machine, and somebody, you could say, stole it. One of my buddies jumped in the truck and fucking took the truck. And he actually, when he got back, he goes, dude, I helped you out. He goes, that was the most awful fucking thing I've ever seen in my life because we went right away and there were still bodies laying around, like parts. And a lot of those guys wound up with, you know, with all kinds of breathing issues and all kinds of shit. So it was shitty in New York at that.

Have to did you guys have to do some of the cleanup or no.

We did some of it. We did hands on stuff. Like, they didn't bring any machines into a long time because they were still looking for people.

Yeah.

And we ran out of the landfill. They put these big tents up, domes, and they were bringing material from there. And dude, they were finding, like a tooth and like claiming people because there were so many people missing. And I knew a few people, like from the bar scene and family friends that passed away. And it sucks. It's just shitty.

Yeah. And there was never really any retribution, I felt, like, in a weird way, also by America. Not that there needs to be. I'm not saying that, but it was always like they never exactly know. It's almost like they never even gave solace in that sense.

No. Yeah.

It was like a lot of people thought, like, that Saudi Arabia was responsible, but they kind of loosely blamed it on kind of fucking Bin La No Hussein.

You get them all mixed up now. It's like, who's next? I know it's so shitty, but they.

Loosely kind of blamed it on him. And maybe he did do it. They just didn't tell it. It's like, man, that was so fucking weird to leave America kind of hanging out to dry like that too, in a weird way. Like, who the fuck did this? You're telling me you don't know?

Somebody's got to know something.

You know, that night, 22 people that were involved in it. Who the fuck did it?

And there's so many crazy things, like new shit coming out with all these documents with it. Even when it comes on. I can't even watch the shit anymore because I was there. Like, saw the dust, like from Staten Island. Saw all the dust and the smoke and stuff. But it's crazy. Now they just keep digging up stuff. Now they have new views of where the planes went in. Like people coming up with these new camera angles, these Trade Center buildings. Nothing hit them. Seven, like, the smaller ones, how did it collapse? And now you're hearing this old conspiracy theory that it was worth I forgot, who was the guy who owned it? Like, owed so much money or something. And it was all being put through at that location. Also in Washington, DC. Where they hit the plane there too. There's so many theories out there, man. And it's just shitty. Because you did that. You could have dropped the planes at night, right? Told everybody, oh, fire alarm, let everybody run. If that was the deal, why'd you kill people. But that's people because now everybody's focus is on that. It's not so much that why did these buildings just collapse out of nowhere?

Oh, did so and so owe money on it? And this was his way out?

Yeah. You don't have some people that's so dirty and some guy yeah, you could give a guy a couple hundred dollars, he'll fly a plane into something. Some dudes I know, a crop duster that'll fucking zero in on your ex wife's apartment, dude.

Yeah.

For probably six days. For sure, Wayne. I think we probably learned everything that we can, man. It's really interesting. I wonder if it would be really different in different parts of America. You think the job? Or do you think it would probably be the same across the board?

No, I think it's definitely different because it's on a private end where those guys are making I work for a private I think I was making $100 a day, but I got it down to two, 3 hours. So whatever. I was making 30 something dollars an hour. I didn't care. But those guys don't make the money. Like New York, there's certain, I think, just around me, like Newark or Elizabeth where they're heavy unions. They'll be unionized. But once you bring the privates in, if they're picking up your garbage, probably here and like in near my house, they don't make that kind of money. So it's a different animal. And they don't even use guys. Like I said, they use the arm that lifts the whole thing up. Dumps it in the truck near my house.

Yeah.

So it's definitely different all over the country.

It's changing, man. So even automation is killing that, huh?

Yeah. You have places like New York, like I said, you can't, right.

You can't.

There's just not enough space.

Right. You're always going to need somebody.

Yeah, there's just not enough space to know to the garbage.

Do you guys have beef with any of the other civil groups? Like, is any dot cops firearm? And is there any real fucking beef on those streets or it's kind of.

Like I personally never had an issue. Yeah, like I said, I said my piece about the fireman. I'll probably get shit for my friends for that one.

It's funny, dude. But hey, look, bro, it's all love.

They know it's true. Yes, they know it's true.

Look, it's a lot of fucking calendar models out there. It's a lot of dudes fucking eating hot dogs all day and then shooting up Ozempin.

So I wanted to do it once that I wanted to do a calendar of, like, the big guys on my job. Yeah, there's some big fucking are there really?

But why wouldn't it be hard to beat a fucking garbage man?

Oh, man. Dude. Well, I just told you. You're sitting around eating all day. There's always cake. There's office guys, big dudes, man.

Yeah.

I mean, four 5600 pounds. And some of them still wiggle down the block. Others, not so much. Yeah, they all find that spot like, oh, I'm going to go work with this guy, or I'm going to go work with that guy, like in an office or something. And that's why it's like, yeah, you could say that's what gives us bad name of like, oh, yeah, they're all just fat, ugly guys. And it's like there's a lot of guys on my job that really take care of themselves. They're lunatics with like health and stuff.

Oh, yeah, that's popular these days. Well, look, man, I'm grateful for your time, man. I feel like I learned a lot about the job. Before I forget, what about drugs? Did people ever find any drugs, you think?

No, we always used to look in the couches and stuff because you never know. You hear stories of like bundles or coke kilos and shit laying around.

Yeah, I've hidden drugs in couches and never gotten it back.

Yeah, no, I wouldn't doubt it if they're out there. Yeah, but no, we used to say, like, oh, yeah, thanks for the tip. Because change would always come out, like nickels and dimes and quarters. Yeah, but people have lost like they drop. And that's another part of like I said, with the Tyvek suits. So if you drop something real quick, if you drop something in the garbage, wedding rings, money, anything expensive, you drop in the garbage, you call the garage. Hey, I dropped on so and so block. I dropped something in the garbage. They'll call the truck out. Hey, stop picking garbage up. But you have to dig through it.

No, you do or I do.

The owner, the caller. You want your ring back? No problem. At 05:00 tonight, they're going to bring that truck to a location on the landfill in an open area. They're going to dump it all on the floor and have fun looking.

Have you gotten to watch somebody look for something before?

I've seen like down below. Because when we drop into a pit, when we dump in Staten Island and there was one family doing they were I don't know if they ever found it.

Family with a bunch of fucking husband and wife.

I said family meaning like husband and bullshitting.

You fucking checking your kid out of.

School to help you find need all the hands and eyes I could get.

Yeah, dude, that's unreal.

But no. I knew a woman, she dropped $700. She was going to a bank and she put the garbage out. The thing was in her hand and it fell in the pail and she got it back.

Wow.

She found it.

They should play music and do a live feed on that. I would bet people would pay to.

Watch that, bro and speed it up. Yeah, listen, they do it. They let people do it.

Wayne, I really appreciate it, dude. Thank you so much for. Your time, brother.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's awesome.

Yeah, it's been really cool. Yeah, I think that it's an admirable feat and that some people can do it and you can get in there and get out with a pension and then go on the rest of your, you know.

Definitely well worth it.

Yeah. You heard it here first, guys. Thank you so much. Wayne have a good one, brother.

You too. Thank you.

Theo now I'm just sitting on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone? Oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this piece of mine I found I can feel it in my bones but it's gonna tell.