Sanitation workers get the spotlight

The closest encounter most citizens have with garbage is the

weekly act of dragging their trash bin to the side of the road.

This ritual is burdensome, but requires very little effort.

Out of sight, out of mind.

However, for a certain few, garbage disposal is a lifestyle

— a grimy and underappreciated profession.

John D. Arwood, CEO of Arwood Waste Inc. in Jacksonville,

Fla., is attempting to place a national spotlight on the noble garbage man,

even if only for a day.

Arwood hopes for June 17 to be recognized as National

Garbage Man Day.

“The garbage men are at your house every week to pick up

your trash,” Arwood said. “Showing them they’re needed is all I’m trying to

do.”

Arwood was inspired to create the holiday when reading

his Bible, noticing the various plagues and diseases present in scripture and

how most of them have been eliminated from modern times due to reliable

sanitation workers.

“This is a day that should have been recognized a long time

ago,” Arwood said.

 And many cities are in agreement.

Arwood says government officials in both Jacksonville Beach,

Fla., and Los Angeles, Calif., have filed to declare the National Garbage Man

Day a recognized holiday in their cities.

But the holiday has a more locally focused scope.

Jeanne Moyer, operations manager at Advanced Disposal

Services in Kathleen, hopes Houston County residents will take a moment to appreciate

their diligent disposers of waste.

In Houston County, garbage men receive 6 holidays a year,

but if a week is cut short by a holiday, waste services typically work on

Saturdays to compensate for the day off.

“We never get a total day off,” Moyer said. “People tend to

not like not getting their trash picked up.”

The men at Advanced Disposal usually work 10 to 11 hour

days, picking up, hauling and disposing waste generated by the city’s residents

and businesses.

Residential waste services start working at 6:30

a.m., while those who dispose of waste generated by restaurants and gas

stations begin working as early as 1 a.m.

Even more exhausting than the hours they work is the

unyielding middle Georgia heat that the workers endure.

“They’re all very hardworking men,” Moyer said. “They work

hard and they don’t complain.”

The garbage men remain undeterred and focused on the

invaluable service they provide the community year round, even if the only

thanks they receive is a day of recognition or a humble bottle of water.

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