A day in the life of a garbage man

The next time you lob a greasy wrapper from the cafeteria into the garbage, say a "thank you" to Maurice Harris, the man who picks up your trash every day. Maurice is a man who enjoys his work, despite the misconceptions that come with his job. "It's the same ol' stuff every day," says Harris, who dons a crisp, reflective yellow shirt and green gloves. "Everybody thinks we're all dirty and grimy, but look at me, I'm clean." Maurice grins, showing off a lone gold tooth. He has worked in sanitation for more than 12 years, but has been working commercial pick-ups for about five. Before he worked for Crown Excel Disposal, the company that STLCC contracts for all its garbage pick-up, Maurice did residential work. The men riding down the street at 6:00 a.m. to pick up your trash bins, those are the residential workers. "Residential is rough, man. Rough on your body, man. " Now Maurice works commercial pick-ups, in other words-dumpsters. Apartment complexes, Walgreens, McDonalds, and country clubs, Maurice stops at venues all over the Greater St. Louis Area. "Commercial is the best work, this is like, the cream of the crop for us." "My day starts at about 4:00 in the morning. I wake up at about 2:30 or so. My route takes between 8 and half to 10 hours, depending on how fast I work." Maurice makes decent money for his labor, pulling in more than $50,000 a year to support his family. "I got two kids and a beautiful wife…..My wife works in sanitation too, she does residential recycling pick-ups, so she's in good shape, which is a plus," says Harris with a laugh. Maurice likes his demanding work. The hard labor of the job shows on Harris' frame. He's a big man, around 6'2 and muscular, no doubt from hauling dumpsters towards his truck everyday. "They can get real heavy sometimes, especially in six inches of snow man." Rain, sleet or snow, nothing stops a garbage man from going on his route. In fact, in the last three years, Crown Excel Disposal has never had a single day in which they did not send trucks out for pickup, which, according to David Holmes, Operations Manager for Crown Excel, is better than even the U.S. Post Office can boast. One of the most common misconceptions of his jobs, claims Harris, is that it is not easy. "Some people think they can do it and they can't, it's not simple work. It's very mental, you gotta have your head in the right place...Sometimes you might have problems in your life or whatever, but when you get to work you need to clear your head. You know, we drive big trucks and they are dangerous, you can hurt somebody if you aren't paying attention." Holmes, agrees. "Commercial work is more about skill than labor. You have to be able to handle your vehicle." Harris has no problem with that. Drivers have the same truck every day; Harris and his red and black front-loader truck, with white number 826 on the back, have a clean safety record. Harris knows how to keep out a close eye during the workday. At the Villages at General Grant on Watson Avenue, Harris was setting down an empty dumpster off his truck when it started to roll to the left, heading towards a car. In no time, the 12 year garbage veteran hopped calmly from his vehicle and grabbed the empty container, stopping it in its tracks. He then smiled and nodded politely to a woman wandering past in the lot, watching him work. Perhaps the best summation of his work was found on his lunch break at McDonalds, sipping on his large soda and munching on a double cheeseburger, this was also one of his daily stops, for work and for lunch. "Trash gets in your blood, for real. Once you start doing it, you'll stick around," said Harris, "You guys might see it and smell trash, but me, I just smell money….. That's the trash life."