Automated garbage trucks make trash collecting a solitary profession

Despite often working holidays, Beaverton trash collector says he enjoys solitary nature of job

By Ed Johnson

The Beaverton Valley Times, Nov 26, 2009

Ed Johnson / The Beaverton Valley Times

Above, George Rodriguez has worked in Beaverton for 11 years as a garbage truck driver for Waste Management. He says he likes the independent nature of his work.

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Being a garbageman seems like a lonely profession.

For eight or 10 hours at a time, they drive around a 65-mile course, stopping on every block to pick up the detritus of modern life, alone in a vibrating truck with a radio that occasionally crackles with static.

Of course, it makes sense that being alone is one of things George Rodriguez likes about his job. For the last 11 years, the 46-year-old Woodburn resident has spent long days – starting at 6 a.m. and ending in the late afternoon – collecting the trash of Beaverton residents. And he’ll be working Thanksgiving, just like the other 90 Waste Management drivers in Washington County.

Rodriguez is quiet man. Of average build and height. He speaks in clear, concise sentences. He likes his work, and sees value in it. He does not appear annoyed to have company on his Monday-morning route, which starts near Southwest Granada Drive and 179th Ave.

“My favorite thing is being on my own out here, probably. You don’t have anybody looking over your shoulder,” he says. “You’re out here doing your own thing.”

The truck, which holds 16,000 pounds of garbage, is emptied twice a day and each route serves 800 to 850 homes. While Rodriguez says the top speed of the big backloaders is around 55 mph, he rarely needs to go faster than 15 mph.

“You’re basically going around in circles most of the time,” he says of organizing his route. “Sometimes it can get a little monotonous.”

The garbage is collected with a precise hydraulic arm, controlled by a joystick from a cockpit that looks like something out of a videogame. There are plenty of nozzles, pressure gauges and other controls not present in other vehicles. Rodriguez uses his mirrors and video monitors to guide the arm, grab the garbage roll-cart, and flip its contents into the generous compactor zone.

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