By Guest Blogger Erika King
NUI Student Erika King went with The City Bin Co.'s team to learn what these early risers do! Here's what Erika learnt on the frontline with the Bin-men:
Every day, the bin men tirelessly
whisk away the rubbish we have set outside.
Chances are, you haven’t given much thought to what happens to your
rubbish after it leaves your bin.
Although we all know bin-men do this great service for us, many of us
may not know much else. Wanting to know
more about the day-to-day of a bin men’s work,
I decided to spend a day following them around. Donning a bright yellow high-visibility vest
and a camera, I spent a cloudy Tuesday morning in the cab of rubbish trucks. Here are the top 3 things I was surprised to
learn:
1.
Rubbish collection is highly systematised

Each driver has a
planned collection route to follow. And,
for efficiency, one truck handles the rubbish of a route while another is
dedicated to collecting the recycling.
The commercial trucks have a special communication system that notifies
them of any businesses who require special stops. A typical truck has one driver and at least
one collector. The driver keeps the
vehicle moving, while the collector quickly, and I mean
quickly, gathers all the refuse and throws it into the truck. These guys are super fit!
2.
The bin-men work together

Rubbish
collection is a fast-paced and tough job.
The bin-men on a given truck have to cooperate to get the job done
quickly and safely. They are
working with a large and dangerous machine, the truck, so they have to be
careful. Communication and trust is key
to successfully getting the job done. As
one bin-man told me, “A good team makes all the difference.” They have to know each other’s work pace and
rhythm to function as a team. The teams
tend not to fluctuate; a driver tends to work with the same collector. This means bin-men quickly become familiar with each other’s habits. These guys are super at teamwork!
3.
Recycle, recycle, recycle!

I am happy to
report that recycling habits have improved!
According to the commercial truck driver, recycling has steadily
increased. Not only that, but
they find fewer and fewer contaminated bags and bins.
By this, I mean that they find less non-recyclables mingling with the recyclables. This is good news! It means less material is ending up in the
landfill! The bin-men are super happy because Dublin and Galway are super at recycling!
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