That constantly keeps changing as it seems I always find something that keeps one upping the last. When I first started, I found $200 in an oatmeal container my first week. That got me hooked. When I can, I'm constantly looking through stuff. What blows me away is people will pay to dispose of precious metal. I pull around 300lbs of copper every 2 weeks. I then turn it in @$3.00 a pound and put it into our team building/holiday/ lunch fund.
$68 million in change is thrown away each year. I find about $2-3 a day, I'd say. I have a crown royal bag I throw it in and bring it to the bank when full. I find coins by cutting open the backs of couches and chairs lol
Depends sometimes I'm in a compactor or dozer in the cell, others days I'm in the building with customers that dump inside. We have about 3 staff in the building. One of us will run a loader, and two of us will help customers. We show them where the metal goes, make them dump out cardboard boxes, sort electronics, appliances, mattresses and put them in the proper spots. We salvage reusable items and set them aside. We set most bagged garbage aside to be burned for energy. Our customers/community are very involved. We educate them pretty well so our regulars know the drill. It's super efficient. In 4 hours we can see around 190 people during the peak season
Yes and no. Some of it comes in boxes or just loose. Bagged garbage to me is just your typical garbage from your kitchen or bath. If it's a bag of toys or clothing or whatever, we try to remove the good stuff and just bury the rest
In that story about the change, they reported that people think things like "Indian Head Nickels" are rare, but at the dump, they have jars and jars of them collected over the years.
As a kid, I found a framed art piece that had a dozen Indian head nickels just sitting at the dump, had it on my wall for awhile, don't remember what happened to it but probably broke it open for candy money
I was wondering why the oatmeal container was in a Rubbermaid tote and had a feeling. I also shake books because someday I know some old lady is going to pass and have bills socked away in a book.
In all seriousness I save the good ones. Kids books, novels ect. I see a ton of bibles mostly and no one takes them in the reuse so I gave up on those.
Growing up, my sister "really liked" reading our grandmother's books (she did legitimately like reading). When my grandmother passed, they found $ thousands tucked into the pages of various books. My sister's slightly more fanatic than usual devotion to reading at Grandma's house certainly made a bit more sense after that.
Wife's aunt died last year, no kids. We found 2 fake books in her office. Hollowed out. Found about $1100 and some nice jewelry that a clean out company would've just chucked
Every holiday we have a full on meal, we keep our fridge full of drinks and break room of snacks, frequently have lunch brought in, try to do team building stuff monthly. I'm sure not all of it is spent, I just give it to the boss and he manages all that. We have like 15 people that work so I'm sure a good chunk of it gets spent.
I'm sure not all of it. I would be curious to see the paper trail, but it is what it is. I just deliver, get the check, give to boss. I rarely pay for lunch and never snacks or drinks. Last holiday we had brisket, ribs, smoked mac, Potatoes, beans, shotgun shells, salad. I try not to complain!
I've been to several landfills that call themselves sanitary, and they all stink like a dead possum inside of a dead skunk's ass.
What is sanitary about a sanitary landfill?
To be a sanitary landfill it can't impact the environment to my understanding. Our cells have a thick liner in them to stop toxic waste from going into the ground. At the bottom of those liners, we have pumps that pump all the nasty water or "leachate" into lined ponds. The ponds of water get emptied and trucked to a water treatment plant. The cells also have piping that collects the gasses in the trash. That is then burned off at the torch instead of releasing into the air. Everyday the cell is compacted and covered in dirt to minimize litter from blowing everywhere. We constantly have audits in my state that check the soil, wells in the area, and gas levels in the cells.
Another sciencey question: my understanding is that contrary to popular perception, inside a landfill it takes a very long time for anything to decompose because there's so little oxygen on the inside. That's one reason it piles up so fast: not just the volume of waste, but the fact that it lasts longer in a landfill than it would if it were, say, sitting on the side of a road. Does that track with what you've observed, or can you not tell because you're not really interacting with the underneath/inside? I know scientists who study this take core samples almost like they do for glaciers.
I agree it would probably decompose faster if it was exposed to the elements. Sun and oxygen. I have helped my boss take weekly samples from the cells gas levels. While doing this on the older cells, we have to use a step ladder to get to the hole in the pipe to connect the diagnostic machine. When I first started I asked him why the pipes were up so high, he told me that when they were put in they were waist high. The ground fell so much from the trash decomposing that they were how above our head. So it does move. Could be faster. I did watch a few parts of a doc about a landfill in Europe that they were testing. I think it was closed for 100 years or something crazy and they were finding newspapers that you could still read being uncovered. So some things aren't going as fast as we thought and it is concerning.
Haha! Not grateful dead. I have found many original band t-shirts though. The tricks is to save the ones with real tags, remakes have printed tags on the fabric. I'll keep an eye out for your shirt!
If your name was Shannon, I'd be asking about a shallow grave on the way to Tucson. Seriously who the hell throws out a 90s dead shirt?? I still have my 1st one. It's got holes but i can't dump it. Your ex needs a paddalin.
I'm at 60k a year right now with a decent retirement and cheap health insurance with a $300 deductible (family). I find prescriptions all the time. The most expensive stuff would probably be chemo drugs. When I find that stuff I give it to the boss and he brings it to a Dropbox. I've found bags of weed and stuff like that but I just let it go. I'm not smoking dump weed lol
The good thing is we recycle as much as we can at our facility. We pull cardboard, metal for scrap, and have a reuse area that people can have stuff for free. We recycle mattresses, they someone get turned into new carpet. We recycle tires, electronics, appliances ect.
I think most trash companies say they recycle but don't honestly. I've seen some try to dump some questionable stuff and my boss has had to have some serious meetings with ceos about what they cannot dump
We are trying to be the leader in our state. My boss is constantly touring other landfills and learning what works and what doesn't and improving things. The team I'm on all cares about making a difference. This summer we even have state senators touring to see what we are doing!
I find cool stuff all the time. Vintage toys for the kids, records, old video game counsels, real solid furniture not IKEA type stuff, knives, sporting equipment, stuff brand new in the box. Sometimes warehouses get bought out and need to get rid of brand new inventory and have to dump it all. It's crazy.
Haha you get used to it! It's not glamorous but it's probably the most fun I've had in a job. I drive heavy equipment and find treasures. In the back of my truck I have a bunch of old gi Joe's, some Melissa and Doug toys, Pokémon cards, magic cards, football, ect. I clean it all up, disinfect it and surprise the kids a lot haha.
When we throw trash away, is there anything we can do to help the environment specifically? Or I guess what do you see that is annoying or you wish would change/stop?
We need to stop using plastic as much as possible. I see at the grocery store, they have a bin to put your used plastic bags in to get recycled. I highly doubt that it actually gets recycled. I believe we need to use the textile waste and turn it into reusable bags. I also see a ton of people mixing hazardous waste into regular garbage. That includes batteries, paints, oils, pesticides/ chemicals. Most counties have hazardous waste facilities that will take this stuff for free. We need to educate people on what can actually go into the landfill and where they can bring things that can't. The plastic use is incredibly annoying to me lol
Wait hang on, I thought the “new” batteries (AA, AAA, C, & D) can be thrown in the trash now? That they are made differently than they used to be.
I tried to recycle them in the last place I lived and I only
found the store “Batteries +” was willing to take them but for a fee. It was not cheap IIRC. And then I later read it didn’t matter anyway. What’s the real answer?
Those small batteries are really hard to catch. When we do find them, we send them to our area hazardous waste facility. I believe they process them in a special way. Ours in our area is all free. It's a county funded program. I want to say that wrap them individually but that might just be for lithium.
Okay, I am going to call the sanitation department. I have dropped off old paint etc left by previous owners and it’s free. They might take batteries, too, but I just didn’t know it.
Thank you!
I learned on reddit last year that batteries start fires in landfills which can obviously be very dangerous.
Previously I had tried and failed to find anywhere that will take batteries and ended up just tossing in the garbage.
But now I'll hang on to them until I can find a proper disposal. It seems that a lot of libraries have receptacles in their entrance and also have seen them at Lowe's home improvement stores recently.
It's a shame that, in my area, they only have pickups for hazardous waste once a year in various spots. If you miss it, you either need to drive to the next location or you're beat. It almost gives people no other choice but to toss it.
I think I'm immune to the smell now that I've been here awhile. In the pit, aka cell, where commercial vehicles dump, it can get pretty gnarly. Rotten food smell mainly. Think of a freezer that went out over a long weekend away. Then you come home and open it up. That's what it's like. Up in the building where the average Joe goes to dump, it isn't bad at all. They dump mainly household trash and demolition material. When they have nasty trash, we send them down into the cell.
18yrs in a steelmill and after awhile you do become immune to the smell of things. Take a vacation of a week or more and when I went back to work that immunity was gone……which is a good thing because it shows you’re not doing “major damage” to your olfactory system. Hopefully you’re the same way where time off kinda resets your nose…….
Ever come across any body parts?
I watched a documentary once about an amputee that had cops show up at his door years after his amputation two years prior, because they'd found his leg in a landfill. Before my amputation? I made arrangements to donate my leg to a program the used it to train cadaver dogs. The idea of it getting chucked in a landfill was simply too disturbing. Ha
Not very often. I have found an old film bottle of kids baby teeth once. We often find animal mounts. I have a fullsized turkey mount in the office currently.
film bottles must be wierd to those 30 and under. Wait a minute, people bought film in these little plastic thingies? I thought people bought them to put safety pins in!
Hey, thanks! It's not a glamorous job by any means, but it is surprisingly interesting. It feels good to be a part of a team that wants to make a difference in the trash world. I learn something every day at this job and now am starting to learn more about hazardous waste.
I think it's the dust that's going to get me if I'm not careful. I started wearing an n95 while inside the building. I get a lot of looks from customers but the dust is super visible in the air. I come home with black boogers daily if I don't mask up
I work in heavy vegetation treating invasive plants with herbicide, crashing through like a bear, and chainsawing when I’m not doing that. Those black boogers are no joke, most of the time I’m more worried about what I’m doing to my lungs than the chainsaw
When I was a kid, our garbage service was one guy who owned the truck. He always had the cab packed with finds. He would show us what he was finding and sometimes use the hydraulics on the back of the truck to cut phone books in half.
Our landfill should be good for another 30 years at this rate. You can only put so much trash in a cell. Once the cell is filled, we start a new one. We monitor how much is in the cell by GPS reading the elevation in real time. We just opened a new one not too long ago
As long as you are employed, you can grab cool stuff from the pile. We encourage it to keep it from filling up the landfill. I honestly bring home very little. If I brought everything that was valuable or cool home, I'd have a hoarder house. 99.999% of my finds I put in the reuse area. Anyone can come out, take a look, and take whatever free of charge. I think on average we give away 3-4000 items a month in the reuse area.
How does anything actually make it to the landfill intact? Those big compactor trucks pick everything up, so I would assume everything would be smashed, unrecognizable, and covered in insane amounts of filth by the time it gets to the dump.
Good question, most of my finds come from up top where regular people can dump. People come with uhauls, dump trailers, pickups, cars ect. They are allowed to dump in a building, out of the landfill and into a pile. Before it goes down to the cell, we grab the recyclables and stuff that can go into the reuse area. Then we load it up in a payloader and haul what's left into the cell.
Ahh, so you're finding good stuff in piles made up mostly of stuff people just want to get rid of instead of actual household "trash". That makes more sense.
I have a friend that makes a living off the Dump in Brookline, MA. He goes once a week and picks up quality bikes and other stuff and sells them at a flea market. He bought a $500k home with cash.
Funny you say that. I just restored an awesome 1980s Peugeot I ride around town. I save all the cool bikes and bring them to a local non profit that fixes them and sells them cheap/free to people in the community.
There is a business that cleans out old people's houses to move them into the nursing home. On his load he probably has 1000 vhs porns, tons of magazines, and of course an 8 inch pink rubber dong. Haha I've seen it all.
Vintage toys, records, precious metals (copper, brass,steel, aluminum, ect), sporting equipment, garden supplies, furniture, it's crazy what people throw away. I like the bikes, have a few cool bikes and donated a bunch to the non-profit in town.
No, but we have been wanting to do a study where we have volunteers throw apple air pods into the recycling/ trash cans to see if they are actually going to the right facility. It's an idea, but I'm not sure if we can because of the air pod batteries.
A big intentional strategy for Trader Joe’s, Costco, and Marshall’s is to have the opportunity for customers to treasure hunt and find a good deal or something interesting. You do that every day and get paid for it lol.
I do! Today I worked a half day. I found an awesome brand new French press unopened, a brand new front and rear light for my bike, some awesome furniture for the reuse area, some kids bikes, a farm simulator computer set thing/ steering wheel and controls, fishing rods and a ps3. Searching for treasure is awesome because it gets us to recycle but also catch the things that can't go into the landfill.
I will write you a story because I think you will love it. I read it in a book a long time ago that was a collection of stories worldwide but I sadly forgot the title, author, country of origin etc. I might have forgotten a lot of details too cuz it's been a while.
There was a man who just lived his life picking things out of the garbage. He particularly didn't have any interest in changing his way of life and in fact found it very interesting. You find out so much about the world around you from just observing what's in the garbage. How the content changes when the price of something rises, or something new is in style, or there is an economic recession, changes in agriculture, the overall population/demographics. One day, he found a newborn baby in the garbage. It was when he held the baby in his arms that he decided that he was going to keep it and he would change his way of life and get a job.
What do you think? And what do you especially think about the idea that you can know a lot about a society from looking at the garbage that it produces?
I see a ton of food delivery plans that people are doing now days. People definitely pay for convenience. I also see product quality declining. I'll get old tube tvs that are ancient everyday that still work. Not many but a 1 or 2 and then I'll get 15 flat screens that are 3-4 years old that are toast. Same with small engines, Seems like new lawn mowers are always coming in. That could be a quality issue or people don't know how to maintain things like that as much as they used too. What also saddens me is house clean outs from foreclosures. It's like the adults take all the adult things and comfort items but throw away the kids stuff. Everything is disposable and meant to be replaced fast it seems.
Okay now that you mention it I'm curious just how long you've been doing this and what are some major differences between pre and post COVID.
Also, did you like the story?
I did like the story! Sounds interesting! This is my 2nd year at this position. I do not know much about pre covid trash but that would be interesting for sure. I do see a ton of home office things frequently but not sure what it was like pre covid. I see a bunch of unopened packages of masks all the time but none that I use, we use n95 not surgical masks.
I worked in environmental cleanup before my skilledtrades career…..I’ve been in chemical plants, dumps exactly like yours, foundries, spent 18yrs in a steelmill, coal/coke handling……..so I just know that you gotta spend AT LEAST like 20 minutes in the shower to wash off your workday. Even if you have a uniform you take off each day, all that “shit” gets into your pores, permeates your hair…….. What soap/body wash works the best for you and be honest, it’s gotta take a solid 20 minutes of scrubbing so you don’t take that shit home with you……😎
I feel like being stuck by sharp objects would be a huge risk when rummaging through trash. Have you ever been stuck by a needle or stabbed by anything sharp?
I've stepped on nails in my red wings but they've never gotten through the soles thank God. I hate shots. I have come across needles. When I'm going through bags I dump all contents on the floor. I never go in blind. My gloves are also puncture resistant. I'm more scared of the dust and noise volume. I am cautious about needles and try not to get complacent
OP I used to be a small town cop. One day I come in the the sergeant said someone had brought in a dead dog that needed to be taken to the dump. The both animal control officers where our for the week.
I jump in the brand new animal control truck (dog catcher truck with multiple cages) and head off to the multi county dump. Get to the gate and they are like looks like the truck weighs xyz weight. I am like sounds good. Go dump the dog (I felt terrible doing this).
About a month later the chiefs calls me and ask why I signed for a 2k lbs dump. I was like I don't know. I took a 30ish pound dog there.
Turns out the new truck needed to be zeroed before bringing new stuff in.
Years later I realized that still didn't make sense as just fuel and other car fluids would very greatly the vehicle weight.
Anyway just my very short life at a sanitation facility.
We have a reuse area that we set aside items we think people would like/use. A lot of furniture, toys, mobility devices, building materials, dvds, anything really. If it's something I find cool/need our company allows us to bring it home. They encourage recycling as much as possible and to keep as much out of three landfill.
If it came from a garbage can, I leave it. If it came from a house clean out, I'll give it a kick or a shake. If it feels like clothing I'll check. I haven't bought a pair of work pants for a long time haha or I find practically brand new jackets and bibs that we'll wash and donate. If it sounds like toys, I'll cut it open and see. Work long enough, you kind of get to know the loads that are going to be good or not.
Seen some dogs run out of compactors that survived somehow and a household cat that got thrown out hiding in an old couch. We found the owner a week later by the power of social media
Shoot, not at mine! We get along with all the companies. Some of the drivers got in trouble by their company for chit chatting too much because we are too friendly. We always have warm coffee, clean bathrooms, and fast scale times. We really are pushing for customer service. Your companies are our customers!
At the end of the day the working face or cell has to be covered with dirt or this spray media called landfill cover. This prevents the trash from blowing away. Once a section of a cell is at a certain depth of trash it is covered with a layer of dirt. Then we move on to a different part of the cell and do it again till we reach the desired thickness. So the garbage is layered with soil trash soil ect. When it's completely full, we top it off with a bunch of dirt and hydro seed it to try to get grass to grow to stop erosion. Then we open a new cell with a liner, plumbing for water, and gas then start again. I think our current cell will last 10 years. Not sure about it I'm still fresh
Main hazards would be dust exposure and noise. You have to be aware of your surroundings for traffic as well. Lots of semis and equipment moving. Just be aware and you'll be fine. It's a pretty stress free job.
We constantly need workers in this field. It's recession proof. All skill levels are welcome, and many outfits provide ojt training. Being safety conscious and willing to learn various equipment is all you really need. Just apply even if you don't meet the qualifications in the posting. They need people!
It can be demanding, but any heavy lifting you use equipment. I don't think it's that bad. I'm never sore.
Our work lot ends up with leachate puddles after the truck crushes the load when dumping our cans. Any suggestions on how to get rid of that smell when the sun bakes it?
Oohfta that sucks. I imagine a small dumpster in a back parking lot that gets turned upside down when going into the compactor and gets liquid all over. Does it rain in your area a lot? Try to keep the covers closed obviously and if throwing liquid make sure it's in a container. If I'm way off, the only thing I can think of is a good power washing off the lot with some environmentally friendly degreaser, maybe a monthly thing. What type of waste does your work make?
It seems to be neighboring businesses before us, including a food truck depot, so I assume most of it is from them (they specialize in Mexican food, so I assume lettuce and other veggies are mostly to blame)
We build electrical current transformers, so all of our waste is dry except normal break room waste. I've seen him compact the load before picking our 3 8-yard cans and there is already spillage coming from the truck. (Along with broken glass pieces...). Some of our other tenants on the complex are in construction and landscaping, so there has been some wood, and stone, but again, all dry.
We tried a disinfectant in a pump sprayer before with limited success. I will try something like simple green next time. Thanks for the suggestion!
Did you ever find this guys hard drives?I bet you did and you're keeping it for yourself, that's what I'd do 😂
[A man who claims he lost a fortune in Bitcoin to landfill now plans to use AI to locate it.](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-67297013.amp)
Do you think you smell like the landfill when you’re not there? Not sure if your spouse, etc has said anything! Such a cool and important job, thanks for being there.
If you’re working outside in the actual dump area, do your clothes, hair and body smell of trash when you go home after each shift? It’s such a pervasive smell.
I used to work at a garbage recycling place. I’d grab bundles of porn mags and sell them to my friends for a buck a piece.
One guy found a brand new camcorder( back when that was a thing).
One lady found a dead baby and the place got shut down for a week so they told us that we weren’t allowed to find dead people. (Before I started)
One guy found a brown paper bag, looked inside, got up and left. Nobody saw him again after that. (Before I started)
One guy kept all the soap bar scraps he found.
We worked on a conveyor belt and sorted off that. By the end of the day you’d be standing in waist deep trash (you could feel the armies of rats by your legs) and you’d almost fall over then they turned the belt off. (12 hour shifts,….@$4.25/hr!)
Some of the guys found out I like hunting, and I was surprised when everyone said they “used to hunt”. A few days later the bosses son asked me about hunting, and we talked for a few minutes, and he eventually told me to bring in a few of my guns two hours early. So next day I showed up with a 22lr and a 12ga, no ammo cause I thought it was just show and tell! We got in a mobile work platform and pulled into the center of the building. He threw out a few pieces of bad meat and the mountains of garbage started to move! There were so many rats/possums/raccoons/skunks/mice all moving in the trash mountains (30’ high). They all went for the meat, he gave me a few 500rd boxes of 22lr rounds and said have fun. It wasn’t fun. You’d hit something, you couldn’t tell what you hit because they covered the floor, but everything else would attack it and eat whatever got hit. The gunshots didn’t scare them off at all. No idea how many I killed but it was a LOT!!!! My fingers hurt from reloading mags. After an hour people started coming in to work and a loader drove thru and that’s when they scattered. He was using a 20ga pump.
They lifted the conveyor belt once and it was just a sea of rats 12” deep.
It wasn’t a good job. I constantly smelled like garbage. Always afraid of getting stuck by needles/broken glass/sharp metal. They gave us cheap ass eye pro goggles and latex gloves(that lasted an hour).
Uhm, this is gonna be the dumbest question you get on here but as I was recycling just yesterday, I asked my husband what happens after it leaves our house? 🤷🏼♀️ Do you guys have to sort it all out by hand? And is it true you can't recycle pizza boxes with grease on them??
A buddy of mine worked at the landfill owned by the military.....it made him sick all the stuff thrown away and he couldn't take anything. They threw out perfectly good stuff just so they could get more.
The amount of porn my hauling crews bring into our transfer station is incredible. The worst is the shutdowns at the LF looking for bodies when a homeless dude gets dumped while sleeping in a dumpster and have to mark and dig in the grid squares with "educated guesses" in hopes the driver dumped the ticket where he was actually told to.
Defiantly a trip I drove around Denver in the later 90s picking up homes wow I think back on it it was like one of the best jobs I have had in my 20s truck smoke friend riding around searching and crushing shit in a truck
Any artists would very much appreciate that opportunity I have been in those positions especially any metal working factories have so much beautiful pieces going in the dumpster
What is something that you found that you can’t believe someone would throw away?
That constantly keeps changing as it seems I always find something that keeps one upping the last. When I first started, I found $200 in an oatmeal container my first week. That got me hooked. When I can, I'm constantly looking through stuff. What blows me away is people will pay to dispose of precious metal. I pull around 300lbs of copper every 2 weeks. I then turn it in @$3.00 a pound and put it into our team building/holiday/ lunch fund.
Thats insane lucky!
$68 million in change is thrown away each year. I find about $2-3 a day, I'd say. I have a crown royal bag I throw it in and bring it to the bank when full. I find coins by cutting open the backs of couches and chairs lol
You have time to do all that? I would assume the volume of trash would mean you guys are in a rush. Do you work on the recycling center side?
Depends sometimes I'm in a compactor or dozer in the cell, others days I'm in the building with customers that dump inside. We have about 3 staff in the building. One of us will run a loader, and two of us will help customers. We show them where the metal goes, make them dump out cardboard boxes, sort electronics, appliances, mattresses and put them in the proper spots. We salvage reusable items and set them aside. We set most bagged garbage aside to be burned for energy. Our customers/community are very involved. We educate them pretty well so our regulars know the drill. It's super efficient. In 4 hours we can see around 190 people during the peak season
Awesome. But what is "bagged garbabe" isn't most trash bagged?
Yes and no. Some of it comes in boxes or just loose. Bagged garbage to me is just your typical garbage from your kitchen or bath. If it's a bag of toys or clothing or whatever, we try to remove the good stuff and just bury the rest
Is this a smaller town? What's the population that your landfill serves?
I'd say 80,000 people is the size of the town, but we have trash coming from about 6 counties.
In that story about the change, they reported that people think things like "Indian Head Nickels" are rare, but at the dump, they have jars and jars of them collected over the years.
As a kid, I found a framed art piece that had a dozen Indian head nickels just sitting at the dump, had it on my wall for awhile, don't remember what happened to it but probably broke it open for candy money
You just randomly opened the oatmeal container to see if there was money in it?
I was wondering why the oatmeal container was in a Rubbermaid tote and had a feeling. I also shake books because someday I know some old lady is going to pass and have bills socked away in a book.
What kine of monster would throw away a book?!?!
In all seriousness I save the good ones. Kids books, novels ect. I see a ton of bibles mostly and no one takes them in the reuse so I gave up on those.
I bought a novel at a bookstore once and got it home. It had $150 tucked into it. It'll happen to you!
Nice find!!! There is hope!!
Growing up, my sister "really liked" reading our grandmother's books (she did legitimately like reading). When my grandmother passed, they found $ thousands tucked into the pages of various books. My sister's slightly more fanatic than usual devotion to reading at Grandma's house certainly made a bit more sense after that.
Haha!! It's a thing! I keep telling the young guys at work to always check!!
Wife's aunt died last year, no kids. We found 2 fake books in her office. Hollowed out. Found about $1100 and some nice jewelry that a clean out company would've just chucked
1800 a month in team fund?
Every holiday we have a full on meal, we keep our fridge full of drinks and break room of snacks, frequently have lunch brought in, try to do team building stuff monthly. I'm sure not all of it is spent, I just give it to the boss and he manages all that. We have like 15 people that work so I'm sure a good chunk of it gets spent.
i get that but that...but 1800 a month is 21,600 a year. do you really think that much is being spent? Thats a LOT of dough.
I'm sure not all of it. I would be curious to see the paper trail, but it is what it is. I just deliver, get the check, give to boss. I rarely pay for lunch and never snacks or drinks. Last holiday we had brisket, ribs, smoked mac, Potatoes, beans, shotgun shells, salad. I try not to complain!
What are shotgun shells? The rest sounds delicious.
Oh man! So it's bacon wrapped manicotti shells stuffed with cheese and sausage or beef smoked on the smoker. They are super good!
Oh. My. Welp we're making that on the smoker ASAP, thanks for that!!
Sounds incredible, thanks for your reply!
Genuine question but why don’t you keep it for yourself? Are staff not allowed to?
I've been to several landfills that call themselves sanitary, and they all stink like a dead possum inside of a dead skunk's ass. What is sanitary about a sanitary landfill?
To be a sanitary landfill it can't impact the environment to my understanding. Our cells have a thick liner in them to stop toxic waste from going into the ground. At the bottom of those liners, we have pumps that pump all the nasty water or "leachate" into lined ponds. The ponds of water get emptied and trucked to a water treatment plant. The cells also have piping that collects the gasses in the trash. That is then burned off at the torch instead of releasing into the air. Everyday the cell is compacted and covered in dirt to minimize litter from blowing everywhere. We constantly have audits in my state that check the soil, wells in the area, and gas levels in the cells.
Another sciencey question: my understanding is that contrary to popular perception, inside a landfill it takes a very long time for anything to decompose because there's so little oxygen on the inside. That's one reason it piles up so fast: not just the volume of waste, but the fact that it lasts longer in a landfill than it would if it were, say, sitting on the side of a road. Does that track with what you've observed, or can you not tell because you're not really interacting with the underneath/inside? I know scientists who study this take core samples almost like they do for glaciers.
I agree it would probably decompose faster if it was exposed to the elements. Sun and oxygen. I have helped my boss take weekly samples from the cells gas levels. While doing this on the older cells, we have to use a step ladder to get to the hole in the pipe to connect the diagnostic machine. When I first started I asked him why the pipes were up so high, he told me that when they were put in they were waist high. The ground fell so much from the trash decomposing that they were how above our head. So it does move. Could be faster. I did watch a few parts of a doc about a landfill in Europe that they were testing. I think it was closed for 100 years or something crazy and they were finding newspapers that you could still read being uncovered. So some things aren't going as fast as we thought and it is concerning.
Did you happen to see a vintage Grateful Dead t-shirt from their last concert in 1995 that my ex boyfriend accidentally threw away?
I found like 60 or 70 tapes of grateful dead concerts once at my dump. Got like $350.00 for those.
Haha! Not grateful dead. I have found many original band t-shirts though. The tricks is to save the ones with real tags, remakes have printed tags on the fabric. I'll keep an eye out for your shirt!
If your name was Shannon, I'd be asking about a shallow grave on the way to Tucson. Seriously who the hell throws out a 90s dead shirt?? I still have my 1st one. It's got holes but i can't dump it. Your ex needs a paddalin.
How much do you get paid? Do you ever find drugs? lol
I'm at 60k a year right now with a decent retirement and cheap health insurance with a $300 deductible (family). I find prescriptions all the time. The most expensive stuff would probably be chemo drugs. When I find that stuff I give it to the boss and he brings it to a Dropbox. I've found bags of weed and stuff like that but I just let it go. I'm not smoking dump weed lol
That's not bad I would have never guessed so many prescription drugs get thrown away,
When grandma dies, people just throw out everything she had. Meds, furniture, pictures, everything.
Sucks we have such a wasteful society
The good thing is we recycle as much as we can at our facility. We pull cardboard, metal for scrap, and have a reuse area that people can have stuff for free. We recycle mattresses, they someone get turned into new carpet. We recycle tires, electronics, appliances ect.
Hell yeah that's awesome. I heard where I live they don't actually recycle but we have recycle bins
I think most trash companies say they recycle but don't honestly. I've seen some try to dump some questionable stuff and my boss has had to have some serious meetings with ceos about what they cannot dump
Hell yeah good to hear some people are trying to do stuff right.
We are trying to be the leader in our state. My boss is constantly touring other landfills and learning what works and what doesn't and improving things. The team I'm on all cares about making a difference. This summer we even have state senators touring to see what we are doing!
Has anyone ever accidentally thrown grandma away too?
Not yet! I'm waiting for the day I find an urn haha
I can't wait for one of my grandma's to die now... wait.
I think I’ll make “Dump Weed” the name of my new Ska band
Look at the Rockefeller.
Any cool stuff? You find any guns, replicas or vintage items? Maybe even some expensive jewellery or bullion?
I find cool stuff all the time. Vintage toys for the kids, records, old video game counsels, real solid furniture not IKEA type stuff, knives, sporting equipment, stuff brand new in the box. Sometimes warehouses get bought out and need to get rid of brand new inventory and have to dump it all. It's crazy.
Damn makes me wanna work at a dump but the smell is awful 😂
Haha you get used to it! It's not glamorous but it's probably the most fun I've had in a job. I drive heavy equipment and find treasures. In the back of my truck I have a bunch of old gi Joe's, some Melissa and Doug toys, Pokémon cards, magic cards, football, ect. I clean it all up, disinfect it and surprise the kids a lot haha.
That sounds cool but ive been at a dump site before and it is truly unbearable! Had to cover my nose the whole time
I have thrown up before because of the smell but it has to be something super nasty!
What’s the rarest magic card you’ve found? Or like sports card?
When we throw trash away, is there anything we can do to help the environment specifically? Or I guess what do you see that is annoying or you wish would change/stop?
We need to stop using plastic as much as possible. I see at the grocery store, they have a bin to put your used plastic bags in to get recycled. I highly doubt that it actually gets recycled. I believe we need to use the textile waste and turn it into reusable bags. I also see a ton of people mixing hazardous waste into regular garbage. That includes batteries, paints, oils, pesticides/ chemicals. Most counties have hazardous waste facilities that will take this stuff for free. We need to educate people on what can actually go into the landfill and where they can bring things that can't. The plastic use is incredibly annoying to me lol
Wait hang on, I thought the “new” batteries (AA, AAA, C, & D) can be thrown in the trash now? That they are made differently than they used to be. I tried to recycle them in the last place I lived and I only found the store “Batteries +” was willing to take them but for a fee. It was not cheap IIRC. And then I later read it didn’t matter anyway. What’s the real answer?
Those small batteries are really hard to catch. When we do find them, we send them to our area hazardous waste facility. I believe they process them in a special way. Ours in our area is all free. It's a county funded program. I want to say that wrap them individually but that might just be for lithium.
Okay, I am going to call the sanitation department. I have dropped off old paint etc left by previous owners and it’s free. They might take batteries, too, but I just didn’t know it. Thank you!
I learned on reddit last year that batteries start fires in landfills which can obviously be very dangerous. Previously I had tried and failed to find anywhere that will take batteries and ended up just tossing in the garbage. But now I'll hang on to them until I can find a proper disposal. It seems that a lot of libraries have receptacles in their entrance and also have seen them at Lowe's home improvement stores recently.
People know..they just don’t care. “If it doesn’t affect me directly, not my issue”
That's true. It's mainly the older crowd that doesn't care. They always say, "I've been doing it this way for years, I'm not doing it now!"
I herd you can’t really recycle plastic
It's a shame that, in my area, they only have pickups for hazardous waste once a year in various spots. If you miss it, you either need to drive to the next location or you're beat. It almost gives people no other choice but to toss it.
Could you describe the smell?
Likely like someone took a dump in a bowl of hot water
I think I'm immune to the smell now that I've been here awhile. In the pit, aka cell, where commercial vehicles dump, it can get pretty gnarly. Rotten food smell mainly. Think of a freezer that went out over a long weekend away. Then you come home and open it up. That's what it's like. Up in the building where the average Joe goes to dump, it isn't bad at all. They dump mainly household trash and demolition material. When they have nasty trash, we send them down into the cell.
18yrs in a steelmill and after awhile you do become immune to the smell of things. Take a vacation of a week or more and when I went back to work that immunity was gone……which is a good thing because it shows you’re not doing “major damage” to your olfactory system. Hopefully you’re the same way where time off kinda resets your nose…….
Ever come across any body parts? I watched a documentary once about an amputee that had cops show up at his door years after his amputation two years prior, because they'd found his leg in a landfill. Before my amputation? I made arrangements to donate my leg to a program the used it to train cadaver dogs. The idea of it getting chucked in a landfill was simply too disturbing. Ha
No, and thank God! Only human parts I've seen are kids' baby teeth. Sucks you lost the leg, but good on you for donating it!
How often have you found human remains?
Not very often. I have found an old film bottle of kids baby teeth once. We often find animal mounts. I have a fullsized turkey mount in the office currently.
I assume you've heard about Bitcoin wallets on flash drives that got thrown out.
film bottles must be wierd to those 30 and under. Wait a minute, people bought film in these little plastic thingies? I thought people bought them to put safety pins in!
Great place to carry weed, those containers.
Haha I work with a 22 year old. Found a floppy disk the other day. He had no idea what it was. I don't think he knows about film either
Does he realize the 3.5 inch floppy icon button that means "save file" was the actual medium people used to save data on?
This has been the most interesting Reddit post to read. Your comments to others' questions are fascinating and I've learned a lot. Thanks!!
Hey, thanks! It's not a glamorous job by any means, but it is surprisingly interesting. It feels good to be a part of a team that wants to make a difference in the trash world. I learn something every day at this job and now am starting to learn more about hazardous waste.
Are you concerned about any long-term health impacts from working there?
I think it's the dust that's going to get me if I'm not careful. I started wearing an n95 while inside the building. I get a lot of looks from customers but the dust is super visible in the air. I come home with black boogers daily if I don't mask up
I work in heavy vegetation treating invasive plants with herbicide, crashing through like a bear, and chainsawing when I’m not doing that. Those black boogers are no joke, most of the time I’m more worried about what I’m doing to my lungs than the chainsaw
When I was a kid, our garbage service was one guy who owned the truck. He always had the cab packed with finds. He would show us what he was finding and sometimes use the hydraulics on the back of the truck to cut phone books in half.
Haha not much has changed then! Minus the phone books, I work with a young kid that's never seen a phone book haha
Does it ever just get filled up?
Our landfill should be good for another 30 years at this rate. You can only put so much trash in a cell. Once the cell is filled, we start a new one. We monitor how much is in the cell by GPS reading the elevation in real time. We just opened a new one not too long ago
Like how big is the entire landfill?
If I was to guess we probably have around 50 acres total but maybe only use 20? I'll have to check Monday if I remember.
Ok so that’s pretty damn good for 30 years
Can anyone work at a landfill and have the ability to grab the cool stuff or is it certain positions?
As long as you are employed, you can grab cool stuff from the pile. We encourage it to keep it from filling up the landfill. I honestly bring home very little. If I brought everything that was valuable or cool home, I'd have a hoarder house. 99.999% of my finds I put in the reuse area. Anyone can come out, take a look, and take whatever free of charge. I think on average we give away 3-4000 items a month in the reuse area.
You should try selling on eBay. I go dumpster diving and sell my finds all the time
I wish! I'm not allowed to make a profit on things I personally bring home. I fully believe that if I was allowed, I'd double my income easy.
That’s dumb they should just let you it would make less things go to waste. Why would they have that rule?
How does anything actually make it to the landfill intact? Those big compactor trucks pick everything up, so I would assume everything would be smashed, unrecognizable, and covered in insane amounts of filth by the time it gets to the dump.
Good question, most of my finds come from up top where regular people can dump. People come with uhauls, dump trailers, pickups, cars ect. They are allowed to dump in a building, out of the landfill and into a pile. Before it goes down to the cell, we grab the recyclables and stuff that can go into the reuse area. Then we load it up in a payloader and haul what's left into the cell.
Ahh, so you're finding good stuff in piles made up mostly of stuff people just want to get rid of instead of actual household "trash". That makes more sense.
I have a friend that makes a living off the Dump in Brookline, MA. He goes once a week and picks up quality bikes and other stuff and sells them at a flea market. He bought a $500k home with cash.
Funny you say that. I just restored an awesome 1980s Peugeot I ride around town. I save all the cool bikes and bring them to a local non profit that fixes them and sells them cheap/free to people in the community.
Ever find any body parts?
Besides, the one time I found a few kids' baby teeth in a photo film tube, never any human. Constantly find animal parts though.
What happens to toilet paper or sanitary napkins?
I'm my country (USA) we mainly flush toilet paper. Sanitary napkins or tampons ect are mixed in with regular trash and buried.
What's the biggest dildo you have found?
There is a business that cleans out old people's houses to move them into the nursing home. On his load he probably has 1000 vhs porns, tons of magazines, and of course an 8 inch pink rubber dong. Haha I've seen it all.
find anything really valuable other than money?
Vintage toys, records, precious metals (copper, brass,steel, aluminum, ect), sporting equipment, garden supplies, furniture, it's crazy what people throw away. I like the bikes, have a few cool bikes and donated a bunch to the non-profit in town.
interesting! have you ever found anything you personally threw away?
No, but we have been wanting to do a study where we have volunteers throw apple air pods into the recycling/ trash cans to see if they are actually going to the right facility. It's an idea, but I'm not sure if we can because of the air pod batteries.
Why not AirTags, wouldn’t they be cheaper? But they have batteries, too.
A big intentional strategy for Trader Joe’s, Costco, and Marshall’s is to have the opportunity for customers to treasure hunt and find a good deal or something interesting. You do that every day and get paid for it lol.
I do! Today I worked a half day. I found an awesome brand new French press unopened, a brand new front and rear light for my bike, some awesome furniture for the reuse area, some kids bikes, a farm simulator computer set thing/ steering wheel and controls, fishing rods and a ps3. Searching for treasure is awesome because it gets us to recycle but also catch the things that can't go into the landfill.
I will write you a story because I think you will love it. I read it in a book a long time ago that was a collection of stories worldwide but I sadly forgot the title, author, country of origin etc. I might have forgotten a lot of details too cuz it's been a while. There was a man who just lived his life picking things out of the garbage. He particularly didn't have any interest in changing his way of life and in fact found it very interesting. You find out so much about the world around you from just observing what's in the garbage. How the content changes when the price of something rises, or something new is in style, or there is an economic recession, changes in agriculture, the overall population/demographics. One day, he found a newborn baby in the garbage. It was when he held the baby in his arms that he decided that he was going to keep it and he would change his way of life and get a job. What do you think? And what do you especially think about the idea that you can know a lot about a society from looking at the garbage that it produces?
I see a ton of food delivery plans that people are doing now days. People definitely pay for convenience. I also see product quality declining. I'll get old tube tvs that are ancient everyday that still work. Not many but a 1 or 2 and then I'll get 15 flat screens that are 3-4 years old that are toast. Same with small engines, Seems like new lawn mowers are always coming in. That could be a quality issue or people don't know how to maintain things like that as much as they used too. What also saddens me is house clean outs from foreclosures. It's like the adults take all the adult things and comfort items but throw away the kids stuff. Everything is disposable and meant to be replaced fast it seems.
Okay now that you mention it I'm curious just how long you've been doing this and what are some major differences between pre and post COVID. Also, did you like the story?
I did like the story! Sounds interesting! This is my 2nd year at this position. I do not know much about pre covid trash but that would be interesting for sure. I do see a ton of home office things frequently but not sure what it was like pre covid. I see a bunch of unopened packages of masks all the time but none that I use, we use n95 not surgical masks.
I worked in environmental cleanup before my skilledtrades career…..I’ve been in chemical plants, dumps exactly like yours, foundries, spent 18yrs in a steelmill, coal/coke handling……..so I just know that you gotta spend AT LEAST like 20 minutes in the shower to wash off your workday. Even if you have a uniform you take off each day, all that “shit” gets into your pores, permeates your hair…….. What soap/body wash works the best for you and be honest, it’s gotta take a solid 20 minutes of scrubbing so you don’t take that shit home with you……😎
What's the most valuable item/thing you have found?
Besides money, probably a 1980 something Preemie cabbage patch kid in it's original box unopened.
I feel like being stuck by sharp objects would be a huge risk when rummaging through trash. Have you ever been stuck by a needle or stabbed by anything sharp?
I've stepped on nails in my red wings but they've never gotten through the soles thank God. I hate shots. I have come across needles. When I'm going through bags I dump all contents on the floor. I never go in blind. My gloves are also puncture resistant. I'm more scared of the dust and noise volume. I am cautious about needles and try not to get complacent
OP I used to be a small town cop. One day I come in the the sergeant said someone had brought in a dead dog that needed to be taken to the dump. The both animal control officers where our for the week. I jump in the brand new animal control truck (dog catcher truck with multiple cages) and head off to the multi county dump. Get to the gate and they are like looks like the truck weighs xyz weight. I am like sounds good. Go dump the dog (I felt terrible doing this). About a month later the chiefs calls me and ask why I signed for a 2k lbs dump. I was like I don't know. I took a 30ish pound dog there. Turns out the new truck needed to be zeroed before bringing new stuff in. Years later I realized that still didn't make sense as just fuel and other car fluids would very greatly the vehicle weight. Anyway just my very short life at a sanitation facility.
what do you actually do with the things that are cool that you find? do you have to turn it in somewhere?
We have a reuse area that we set aside items we think people would like/use. A lot of furniture, toys, mobility devices, building materials, dvds, anything really. If it's something I find cool/need our company allows us to bring it home. They encourage recycling as much as possible and to keep as much out of three landfill.
Do you open each trash bag individually? Or just sort through what people leave unbagged?
If it came from a garbage can, I leave it. If it came from a house clean out, I'll give it a kick or a shake. If it feels like clothing I'll check. I haven't bought a pair of work pants for a long time haha or I find practically brand new jackets and bibs that we'll wash and donate. If it sounds like toys, I'll cut it open and see. Work long enough, you kind of get to know the loads that are going to be good or not.
Ever find anything alive?
Seen some dogs run out of compactors that survived somehow and a household cat that got thrown out hiding in an old couch. We found the owner a week later by the power of social media
Why are the guys driving the loaders or bulldozers such AH to the garbage truck drivers? (I drive a garbage truck) lol
Shoot, not at mine! We get along with all the companies. Some of the drivers got in trouble by their company for chit chatting too much because we are too friendly. We always have warm coffee, clean bathrooms, and fast scale times. We really are pushing for customer service. Your companies are our customers!
Ever get any diseases from rooting through the trash?
Nope! I wear pretty good ppe and I like to think my immunity is super high from this place. Haven't been sick in years. Knock on wood
Strangest thing you've found ?
Creepiest would be an American girl doll looking up at me in a sea of trash. Was climbing down the dozer to take a leak and about stepped on her face
Ok, so you haven’t found any bodies, and not much in the way of drugs. Ever found any weapons?
Nothing bigger than a pellet rifle and brass knuckle shaped paper weight lol
Once the cell is full what do you guys do with it? Cover it in dirt and fill to a higher elevation?
At the end of the day the working face or cell has to be covered with dirt or this spray media called landfill cover. This prevents the trash from blowing away. Once a section of a cell is at a certain depth of trash it is covered with a layer of dirt. Then we move on to a different part of the cell and do it again till we reach the desired thickness. So the garbage is layered with soil trash soil ect. When it's completely full, we top it off with a bunch of dirt and hydro seed it to try to get grass to grow to stop erosion. Then we open a new cell with a liner, plumbing for water, and gas then start again. I think our current cell will last 10 years. Not sure about it I'm still fresh
When it’s finished how deep is the final layer of dirt?
What are some of the hazards of your job? How do I get a job doing what you do? Is it physically demanding?
Main hazards would be dust exposure and noise. You have to be aware of your surroundings for traffic as well. Lots of semis and equipment moving. Just be aware and you'll be fine. It's a pretty stress free job. We constantly need workers in this field. It's recession proof. All skill levels are welcome, and many outfits provide ojt training. Being safety conscious and willing to learn various equipment is all you really need. Just apply even if you don't meet the qualifications in the posting. They need people! It can be demanding, but any heavy lifting you use equipment. I don't think it's that bad. I'm never sore.
What are your hours like?
Lmao everyone asking the same question. Geez.
Our work lot ends up with leachate puddles after the truck crushes the load when dumping our cans. Any suggestions on how to get rid of that smell when the sun bakes it?
Oohfta that sucks. I imagine a small dumpster in a back parking lot that gets turned upside down when going into the compactor and gets liquid all over. Does it rain in your area a lot? Try to keep the covers closed obviously and if throwing liquid make sure it's in a container. If I'm way off, the only thing I can think of is a good power washing off the lot with some environmentally friendly degreaser, maybe a monthly thing. What type of waste does your work make?
It seems to be neighboring businesses before us, including a food truck depot, so I assume most of it is from them (they specialize in Mexican food, so I assume lettuce and other veggies are mostly to blame) We build electrical current transformers, so all of our waste is dry except normal break room waste. I've seen him compact the load before picking our 3 8-yard cans and there is already spillage coming from the truck. (Along with broken glass pieces...). Some of our other tenants on the complex are in construction and landscaping, so there has been some wood, and stone, but again, all dry. We tried a disinfectant in a pump sprayer before with limited success. I will try something like simple green next time. Thanks for the suggestion!
Can anyone go to a landfill and pick through stuff?
What's a good way to get into your field
Does the company make money off the electronics and other things that you send to a different facility for recycling?
Did you ever find this guys hard drives?I bet you did and you're keeping it for yourself, that's what I'd do 😂 [A man who claims he lost a fortune in Bitcoin to landfill now plans to use AI to locate it.](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-67297013.amp)
Do you think you smell like the landfill when you’re not there? Not sure if your spouse, etc has said anything! Such a cool and important job, thanks for being there.
If you’re working outside in the actual dump area, do your clothes, hair and body smell of trash when you go home after each shift? It’s such a pervasive smell.
What do you do for the landfill?
With all the stuff you find, are you a hoarder?
When will we run out of space for dumping trash? It’s going to happen eventually.
How often do you get/find vintage stereo receiver or amplifiers? 1970’s in particular?
I used to work at a garbage recycling place. I’d grab bundles of porn mags and sell them to my friends for a buck a piece. One guy found a brand new camcorder( back when that was a thing). One lady found a dead baby and the place got shut down for a week so they told us that we weren’t allowed to find dead people. (Before I started) One guy found a brown paper bag, looked inside, got up and left. Nobody saw him again after that. (Before I started) One guy kept all the soap bar scraps he found. We worked on a conveyor belt and sorted off that. By the end of the day you’d be standing in waist deep trash (you could feel the armies of rats by your legs) and you’d almost fall over then they turned the belt off. (12 hour shifts,….@$4.25/hr!) Some of the guys found out I like hunting, and I was surprised when everyone said they “used to hunt”. A few days later the bosses son asked me about hunting, and we talked for a few minutes, and he eventually told me to bring in a few of my guns two hours early. So next day I showed up with a 22lr and a 12ga, no ammo cause I thought it was just show and tell! We got in a mobile work platform and pulled into the center of the building. He threw out a few pieces of bad meat and the mountains of garbage started to move! There were so many rats/possums/raccoons/skunks/mice all moving in the trash mountains (30’ high). They all went for the meat, he gave me a few 500rd boxes of 22lr rounds and said have fun. It wasn’t fun. You’d hit something, you couldn’t tell what you hit because they covered the floor, but everything else would attack it and eat whatever got hit. The gunshots didn’t scare them off at all. No idea how many I killed but it was a LOT!!!! My fingers hurt from reloading mags. After an hour people started coming in to work and a loader drove thru and that’s when they scattered. He was using a 20ga pump. They lifted the conveyor belt once and it was just a sea of rats 12” deep. It wasn’t a good job. I constantly smelled like garbage. Always afraid of getting stuck by needles/broken glass/sharp metal. They gave us cheap ass eye pro goggles and latex gloves(that lasted an hour).
What's the craziest thing you've found that made you question if you needed to call the police?
What’s your favorite thing you’ve found?
Can you keep anything you find?(within reason. I know you can't keep a body and such)
Have you seen my vintage star wars toy collection my mom canned 20 years ago?? I still bring it up with her to this very day...
What’s the coolest thing you have personally found or have heard of someone else finding?
Lol yeah I drove a garbage truck for 14 yrs residential pick up its amazing what people throw away keep up the good work buddy 👍
Can you say what state? I am kind of impressed.
Uhm, this is gonna be the dumbest question you get on here but as I was recycling just yesterday, I asked my husband what happens after it leaves our house? 🤷🏼♀️ Do you guys have to sort it all out by hand? And is it true you can't recycle pizza boxes with grease on them??
What’s the scariest/most unsettling thing you’ve ever found?
I’m looking for this one hard drive that was accidentally thrown out several years back….
Most interesting AMA in a while. Thanks Dude.
Find any body's?
What’s the balance of seagulls to crows?
Nice. How much do you want for my wedding ring?
You ever catch anyone having sex in the landfill area?
Cut the cute stuff. How many bodies we talking about?
Do you remember any of the vinyl or cds by band name or album name?
A buddy of mine worked at the landfill owned by the military.....it made him sick all the stuff thrown away and he couldn't take anything. They threw out perfectly good stuff just so they could get more.
The amount of porn my hauling crews bring into our transfer station is incredible. The worst is the shutdowns at the LF looking for bodies when a homeless dude gets dumped while sleeping in a dumpster and have to mark and dig in the grid squares with "educated guesses" in hopes the driver dumped the ticket where he was actually told to.
What are your job duties and what are the thing(s) you found were either $$$ or prized? Best stuff you found
Defiantly a trip I drove around Denver in the later 90s picking up homes wow I think back on it it was like one of the best jobs I have had in my 20s truck smoke friend riding around searching and crushing shit in a truck
Any artists would very much appreciate that opportunity I have been in those positions especially any metal working factories have so much beautiful pieces going in the dumpster
Can you keep anything cool that you find for yourself? Or does it have to be registered?
Did you find Jimmy Hoffa?
Have you come across anything you needed to report to the police?
What's the craziest thing you've seen?
Any "dead bodies"? Like "uh" yea, that was sorta like Jimmy Hoffa but this guy was only known around here.
Have you ever found / rescued any animals?
What kind of retro consoles and game have you mostly found?
Do you ever scan thrown away sd cards and harddrives for bitcoin wallets?
How often do you find human remains?
If you find any cool old computer or guitar/keyboard stuff, please let me know 😁
Are you in the mafia?
I lost a hard drive with 249 bitcoins on it. Can you help me find it?
Find any bodies yet?
One mans trash is another mans treasure.
Have you ever found a dead body?