Heading to Work

TUCSON, Ariz. — It's 4:15 a.m., and the annoying buzz of my alarm blares in my ears. I am a 22-year-old college student, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been up this early. I can only remember times when I’ve been up this late.

I am spending my day riding along in a garbage truck, and the work day of a garbageman starts early, so I reluctantly climb into the shower, hoping to wake myself up enough to get going.

5:02 a.m. I am dressed and out the door. It is still dark outside, with barely a sign of the sun rising over the horizon.

5:12 a.m. I arrive at the City of Tucson’s Environmental Services Residential Garbage and Recycling offices at 4004 S. Park Ave. to meet the man I’ll accompany on his route. I accounted for traffic that doesn’t exist at that time in the morning, so I arrive a little early.

Robert Urbina, an Environmental Services Supervisor, introduces me to a bunch of drivers who were herded around a picnic table receiving their assignment for the day. A couple of the guys give me a hard time about how tired I look, but it’s all in good fun. I get a more formal introduction to Daniel Domínguez, the garbage man I would be riding around with all day.

The Garbageman

Domínguez has been a garbage truck driver for more than 11 years, and both he and Urbina assure me that I would get the full experience riding along with him.

Domínguez and I head over to his truck. He explains to me what goes into preparing for his daily route. I watch and listen as Domínguez completes all his checks on the mechanical equipment on the truck that needs to be inspected before and during each route.

“I know this seems annoying, tedious and long,” Domínguez said, “But if you don’t take the time to do it your day could be a lot longer than it already is.”

My Day in the Garbage Truck

6 a.m. We finally take off, about 15 minutes later than all the other drivers because Domínguez had to spend the time explaining everything to me. I could sense that the day was going to probably move at a little slower pace with me on board.

Domínguez’s Monday route consists of all the area between North Country Club Road and North Alvernon Way from East Broadway Boulevard to East Speedway Boulevard.

6:22 a.m. We make our first trash pickup of the day. Domínguez says the drivers are required to document times that certain events occur, such as their first pickup, when they go to the landfill, their last pickup and other events in between.

Shortly after we get started, Domínguez makes his first documentation for the day. He is required to document infractions by customers and is encouraged note other things he comes across that could become a future problem. In this instance, Domínguez records that a customer who often complains about his trash not being picked up does not have his trash bin at the curb for pickup per city regulations.

We run into numerous other infractions along the route. The most common seemed to be customers setting out trash that was not in a proper bin or even in a bin at all.

Exiting the Vehicle

There are only a few times a day when garbagemen have to get out of the truck, Domínguez said.

Some of the stops are required.

“Today I have three special service stops,” Domínguez said. “I have to get out and roll both the recycling bin and trash bin out to the curb, and later the guy picking up the recycling will roll them back.”

The special services stops are also referred to as an ADA (American Disability Association) stop. These stops are for customers who have disabilities or are too elderly and weak to roll the bins out themselves. A doctor’s note is required by the City of Tucson for customers to receive this service.

There is one more stop on Domínguez’s route where he has to go get the trash himself. He is required to roll the bins to the curb at the Tucson City Council Ward 6 Office.

“This is the only stop on any of my routes that isn’t an ADA stop where I have to get out of the truck,” Domínguez said.

Other stops on the route are not required and are often unexpected.

As we approach the end of one road I notice that Domínguez is unbuckling his seat belt. We come to a stop and he hops out of the truck and jogs over to a mailbox, where he drops in some mail.

“Garbagemen have bills to pay also,” Domínguez says. “I have to find ways to accomplish everyday errands while I’m on my route, and I know that mailbox is there so that’s where I put my bills.”

Going to the bathroom is another task that isn’t as easy as leaving your desk for a couple of minutes. Garbagemen have to plan ahead and know of places on their route where they can use the restroom. We stop at a Walgreens, where I decide to use the restroom as well.

Resuming My Day in Garbage Truck

Just before 9 a.m. I start to hear an annoying beeping sound and with each stop it starts to occur more frequently. When I finally ask what the it is, Domínguez tells me, “It means it’s time to go to the landfill.”

The drive to the landfill serves as somewhat of a break for Domínguez.

“I like heading out to the landfill because for awhile it isn’t all just stop, and go,” Domínguez said. “And it’s a break from making right turn after right turn.”

Even though I don’t do this routine daily, I was happy we were changing the pace as well.

On the way to the Los Reales Landfill we discuss the good and bad about the job.

Domínguez says the worst part is probably all the repetitiveness because it can get boring. He also doesn’t like the stress of always worrying about his surroundings and keeping everyone safe, but says it’s part of the job.

“Something I really like about the job is knowing that it does matter and it is important,” Dominquez says. “I saw a bumper sticker the other day that I really like. It said, ‘Garbagemen keep America clean.’ I thought to myself, ‘Ain’t that the truth.’”

At the landfill I notice there were more than a few other trucks arriving at the same time as we were. Domínguez says that there is always a truck or two there at any given time but there are certain times where a bunch of trucks arrive all at once.

When we get to the dumping zone, a “spotter” points to an area where we should dump the load. I quickly throw on my neon orange safety vest and scurry up the hill to take a picture of Domínguez unloading.

After he empties his truck, he inspects it to make sure everything is still in working order. Then it’s back to his route with more right turns and a lot of stopping and going.

According to Domínguez, a daily route has somewhere between 1,200 and 1,600 stops.

Garbagemen Eat Too

11 a.m. Lunch time. Domínguez tries to eat somewhere in the vicinity of his daily route. Mondays give him four or five options, but it normally comes down to two.

“I eat a lot of Chick-fil-A and In-n-Out,” Domínguez said. “It’s quick, convenient and cheap.”

By this time I was extremely hungry as well and didn’t have a preference. I just wanted to eat. The half an hour for lunch went by extremely fast, as it always does, Domínguez says.

11:32 a.m. We are back en route. We continued to pick up trash for about an hour and a half until the truck started to beep at us again. This time I wanted to go up and inspect what a full load looked like.

Surprised at not really smelling anything too bad while in the cab of the truck, it became a different story up near the “hopper” (the area where the trash is directly dumped into the truck). I can’t even begin to describe the smell. I bury my nose in my sleeve and snap a photo. I knew I didn't want to go up there again.

“To be honest, I think I’m used to the smell,” Domínguez says. “The only time I really ever notice it is if there is a dead animal in there. Those smell pretty bad.”

1:09 p.m. Our second trip to the landfill. On average, Domínguez makes three trips to the landfill during the day, but the last load is almost never full.

Late lunch traffic and a missed turn caused by conversation make this trip to the landfill longer than the first.

Chatting along the way, Domínguez and I find out we have some things in common. Both his wife and my fiancée are elementary school teachers, and his oldest son will be attending the UA in the fall and is thinking about becoming a journalism major.

After we dump the trash, I decide that as much as I would have loved to stay for some more stop-and-go driving, I had gotten the basic gist of a day in the life of a garbage truck driver. And I needed to get to class.

2:03 p.m. We arrive back to Domínguez’s route. We radio his supervisor and arrange to meet so he can drive me back to my car. Domínguez tells me that he enjoyed having a riding partner, and it was a nice change from being by himself all day, something that he said can be “both a good and bad thing about the job.”

He also said I could ride along with him whenever I wanted.

“I’ll have to think about it,” I said. “I don’t know about waking up at four in the morning again.”