1 Working in a Dump

I work at a dump from 9am to 5pm, 6 days a week. My only day off is Sunday and I'm happy that I don't have to spend it smelling the foul odors of people's garbage. Everyday I deal with customers who try to get one over on me. They think I don't see what they do, but the truth is I don't really care.

Pickup trucks and trailers lined up and are filled to the brim with all of their garbage. They are weighed on a scale before and after they dump the garbage into the compactor. That's how we know how many pounds to charge for. Some people bring a passenger with them and they get out just before it's being weighed for the first time. The manage to small talk with me, even though I know what they are doing. After the garbage is dumped out, they get back into the truck and go around for the second weigh in. This has become a pretty normal thing I see around here. People are always trying to pay less for the amount of garbage they are getting rid of.

Sometimes I see people dropping off old TVs in the recycling center. Shortly after some people come around just to pick them up and strip them of gold, copper and other valuable metals. I can tell that these people need the money, so I always turn a blind eye. They have been at it for so long that I recognize them now and even have start to build a relationship with them.

There is this one woman I see who comes in every week, always on a Friday night right before we close. Just as I am about to turn the compactor off, I see her standing there waiting to throw in her one small box. Now she's been doing this for the better part of two months now. I've always asked her why she doesn't just throw her boxes away with the rest of her garbage at her home. But the only response I've ever received was that this was much more personal. She's a little older, so I don't really question her rhyme or reason. Besides, what's one small box once a week when others are dumping in full truckloads and not paying the full amount. I can't imagine it makes that much of a difference.

At closing time, it's already pitch black out this time of the year. I can't see a thing when I turn the machine off, or empty the remainder of the trash into trucks that carry it all away. I always wonder why we throw away so much. Often times I see usable items, and ask for them before they get dumped and crushed into pieces. Now of course I give those people a little bit of a discount.

I've collected many things over the years, from electronic parts, to nostalgic childhood toys I use to have growing up, to even damaged food that has nothing wrong with it but a dent or a blemish. I like to think of myself as a savior. You know, the ones who care enough about saving the world, but not fully obviously because I still work at a giant dumping ground that doesn't control what goes in and what goes out. You never know what could be dumped.

One time during the winter just a couple of years ago, our big compactor machine stopped working. After years of no upkeep, lots of rust and waste buildup, it just stopped working. Like I said it was winter time, and the new coworker thought it was because of the liquids from the garbage freezing that might have froze the grinders. He decided to climb down in there and check it out for himself. Now this is something everyone was taught very early on not to do. As you can imagine, that old machine just had something stuck but once he unstuck it.. well.. he was down there. When another coworker came in to cover him he was no where to be found. When the garbage from the compactor was emptied into the trucks, a leg was found poking out. Clearly it was fresh and preserved as the winter temperatures allowed it to be.

Long story short the police had arrived, and pieces were put back together. It was a gruesome scene as hundreds and thousands of pounds of garbage was sifted through. A smell so pungent took over the atmosphere for miles in the area. We ended up having to close for the rest of the week. Thankfully I still got paid, but it was probably just to insure I stayed around. After that, new rules and regulations were put into place. A tall cement wall was put around 3 sides of the rectangular bottomless pit and a chain was put across the new ledge so trucks and people knew where to stop. All of the workers from the moment we clocked in to the moment we clocked out, had to wear a neckless with an emergency off button on it which controlled the compactor. We even had someone come clean and look at it to ensure it wouldn't get stuck like that again. Ever since then there was a strict rule of no climbing down into the machine. Now this was one thing that I did listen to!