"I've forgotten to 'put my bins out'...again!" An Interview with the 'Bin Men'

“Oh no, I forgot to put the bins out!” I realised as I rushed downstairs, trying to scrape my bed-hair up whilst scrambling for my slippers, in a desperate attempt to look somewhat presentable. Heaven forbid any of my neighbour’s witness the frantic rush to get my overflowing bin to the end of the driveway.

Unfortunately, it was too late; they had ‘bin’ and gone. This marked the second week in a row I’d forgotten. My bin was packed to the brim. The odour was far from ‘Savauge‘ and more savage! I’d already made two pathetic attempts to squash the rubbish down to create space. Defeated, I retreated inside and sighed.

We’ve all experienced it. The wake-up call from the beeping bin lorry, wheelie bins dragged from the curb and loaded onto the waste-eating, monster wagon. Yesterday’s leftover roast, a worn-out pair of trainers, all sorts of perishables, now no longer our concern; our garbage was now in someone else’s hands. Never to be thought of again. Phew!

It struck me, without ‘bin men’, society would grind to a halt. We’d be sinking in our own waste within five weeks, infested with rats and vermin, unable to resort to the questionable and outdated practices of burying, burning, or dumping our refuse into a river. I concluded that ‘bin men’, or as I later discovered, ‘Waste Collection Operatives’, are truly undervalued.

Despite these local heroes visiting weekly to ‘do their thing’, I had never spoken to them, nor had I ever come across an interview with a ‘bin man’. I reflected on the old ‘doom scrolling’ habits, and getting lost in the bottomless pit of social media content. Even then, I could recall influencers, comedians, people being held at ‘mic-point’ in the street. But never a ‘bin man’, simply talking about his work, and life.

My curiosity and admiration for them grew. It was time for me to seek the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.

I picked up the phone and called Bradford Council, asking if I could interview two of their ‘finest’ Waste Collection Operatives – it was agreed!

A week later, I eagerly parked at one of Bradford’s Waste Depots, greeted by the warm smile and wave of Simon, the WCO Manager, and excellent conversationalist.

Shortly after, I met WCO Graham, a humble man, holding a leaving card filled with farewell messages of admiration, from colleagues, but friends more so. Graham, an honest grafter, not shy of hard work, was retiring that day, after dedicating over thirty years of his life, to keeping the streets clean, with little time off.

After a short drive into Bradford to meet WCO Peter, a man with a stronger Yorkshire accent than anyone I had ever met, ‘on the job’.

It was the perfect moment to ask both Peter and Graham about what life was REALLY like as a WCO.

“People just park cars anywhere and everywhere, you can knock on doors all day long and nobody knows who the car belongs to, we can’t get in and get the bins”

Have we always had wheelie bins? Somebody mentioned earlier that it wasn’t always that way. Graham was saying that we used to just have black bags.

Peter: Back in the days before wheelie bins we had black bags, people would throw their rubbish in black bags. The ‘older binners’ used to say that it was easier with ‘steelie bins’, but what they didn’t realise is that they had smaller areas to do, and it were ash, and ash is heavy, but when they brought the bags out, it were ‘all volume’ [dense weight], and there were no limit to how many bags you could throw out. The problem was that drug users were putting needles in the bags, and quite a few of our staff got jabbed by the needles. That’s when the council introduced wheelie bins.

How do you keep yourself safe? In terms of, you’ve got your ‘high vis’ and steel toe caps and stuff…?

Peter: It’s all safe, when you put ’em [wheelie bins] onto the lorry, you stand back. Sometimes the bins can get rejected and thrown off.

Graham: Sometimes people put too much weight in the bin and it gets thrown off [the lorry].

Peter: You’ve got to keep your wits about you.

Who empties YOUR bins?

Peter: I do my own bin, because I work in the area that I live.

Graham: I don’t know who does mine.

Are you more conscious about how much rubbish you throw away? Do you try to throw less away?

Peter: Oh yeah, you’ve got to lead by example. It’s no good me having a green waste bin and I don’t use it.

Graham: People throw plastic bags in recycling, you’re not supposed to. The supermarket will take them.

What about polystyrene?

Both (in sync): Polystyrene is fine.

Can you put glass in a recycling bin?

Peter: It depends on the council, some council’s let you. The council around here [Bradford] are talking about collecting food waste.

How often are you finding people putting recyclable waste in the wrong bin?

Peter: A lot of people’s waste is recyclable. People try to mix domestic waste and recyclables, and waste gets cross contaminated. The recyclable material cannot be resolved then.

Have you ever been chased off by a dog?

Peter: Oh I’ve been bit.

Graham: I’ve been bit from behind, the owner said it [the dog] was alright but it bit me from behind.

How many steps do you walk a day?

Peter: We walk around 40,000 steps a day.

What can the public do to make your jobs easier?

Peter: One of the things that can be easily avoided is parked cars. People just park cars anywhere. There’s a lot of places we go to where people just abandon them, and nobody knows whose car it is. If we can’t get in, we can’t get them bins, and you might be the innocent person that does not get their bin emptied. It’s an ongoing problem, it really is.

Graham, it’s Friday and it’s your retirement party today. What have been your highlights of working as a WCO? How long have you worked in this job?

Graham: Seeing people’s reactions as their bins get emptied. Talking to the local people. I started in 95′, I’m ready to retire.

Peter: The other thing I have to mention is that Graham has only been off for two weeks in nearly thirty years. He is very resilient.

Even when it snowed heavily, Graham refused to take a day off. I was left moved by their commitment, and grateful to have people like Simon, Graham and Peter in our society.

After thanking them both for their time, I was driven back to the depo by Simon, who continued to fill me in about the ‘WCO life’. One story of the WCO’s needing counselling after finding a dead baby in the bin gave me shivers.

Further pondering over waste in other areas, I uncovered Leeds City Council’s wonderful Revive initiative, supporting local communities in offering second-hand items, at much lower prices, in one of five Leeds stores, including a new Hunslet store, opened just last year.

As the summer changeover period draws closer, Leeds City Council urges some 50,000 students to think about their leftovers. A quick trip to a foodbank, a Revive store, a recycling centre, or simply selling on items, rather than simply dumping trash, serves as a thank you to local Waste Collection Operatives, like Peter and Graham.

All in all, the interview really made me think. Waste collection is something not to be overlooked. A WCO is more than just a ‘Bin Man’, they are the people, that come rain or shine, ensuring we don’t drown in our own filth. They keep our streets clean, every day, until they can’t.

Now, every Monday, at 9am, I remember to ‘put my bins out’.

Words by Sonya Kumar Bansal