Saturday, October 30, 2010

Garbage In ..... Garbage Out ....

Thursday was garbage day in my back lane. It has been now for a few months. This morning was no different. At 7:30am I heard the garbage truck stop at my dumpster. I looked out the window, and sure enough my dumpster was getting emptied. The hydrolic arm connected to the dumpster and pulled it up toward the truck, dumping its contents into the large BFI truck.
At 9:00am I heard the noise of the garbage truck in the back lane. This time when I looked out the window I saw the BFI truck at the neighbours dumpster. What took so long to go from my dumpster over to the neighbours? Well, as long as the dumpsters get emptied. I went about my business.
About fifteen minutes later I heard the scraping of metal in the back lane. I looked outside again and saw garbage coming out of the BFI truck. I could not believe my eyes. Garbage was actually being thrown out of the BFI truck. I went outside to get a better look at what was going on. Sure enough, someone was inside the BFI truck, scraping what sounded like a shovel, along the inside of the truck, and throwing garbage out. The garbage was landing in and around the dumpster in the back lane. I was shocked at what I was seeing. I was getting madder and madder, thinking the BFI guys were now throwing garbage out of the trucks into the lanes of the North End. I was thinking, what next. Honestly, this has got to be just too much.
But as I was getting ready to go inside and call 311 to report this absolute absurd issue of garbage being emptied into my lane from a BFI truck, I heard someone talk over the radio from the truck. They said it was a little early for this to be happening to the truck. The workers were shovelling garbage out of the truck, then trying the hydrolics on the side to see if the arm would extend to pick up a dumpster. Then they would shovel more garbage out.
So, I guess they were not just throwing garbage into the lane. The workers were trying to get the hydrolics working. They tried for another fifteen or twenty minutes, then left. An hour later another BFI truck came and finished the job.
And yes, all the garbage that they dumped on the ground was cleaned up.
I guess I shouldn't be so quick to think the worst of these guys. And I did get a laugh in the end.

1 comment:

  1. We had a problem over here in PD where there was so much construction junk, cement etc, that the BFI simple couldnt' lift it. Don't know how they solved maybe sent a younger truck!
    Living in the "hood you have to be ready to laugh.
    Did you read the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press,the front page continued in FYI, it makes the inner city look like heaven.

    ReplyDelete