The Refuse Department doesn't stop for anything. And during the summer, when temperatures can reach more than 100 degrees and the air is sticky with humidity, you don't want to be picking up garbage, I was told. I heard horror stories about rotting food, the stench of hot garbage and trash crawling with maggots. I can't explain how ecstatic I was to not be working on a day like that. More than meets the eye People take trash seriously.
Customers expect whatever is placed on the curb to be picked up, regardless of what form it is in.
Bolton told me irate customers have called to cuss and yell at him on several occasions during his two years as Refuse Department director because their garbage wasn't picked up. Often, he said, customers don't realize the work that is involved. The trash isn't just magically whisked away. The more than 50 county garbage truck drivers and trash collectors work hard, he said, removing about 150 tons of trash each day during this time of year and making between 400 and 700 stops a day per truck. Many people don't follow the rules, either, which makes life difficult for sanitation workers.