Taking out the trash is usually a chore assigned to a parent or teenager in the household. But once that trash hits the curb, it鈥檚 someone else鈥檚 job to pick it up. And America produces a lot of trash: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans generate 254 million tons of trash a year. That trash is then hauled away by the nearly 120,000 waste workers in the U.S., some of whom make as much as $100,000 a year. Competition for these jobs is fierce in some cities; in places like New York City, the acceptance rate for those applying to become sanitation workers is just 1 percent.
Refuse collection is one of the top five most dangerous jobs in America. Waste workers deal with heavy and dangerous equipment daily, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fatal injury rate for waste collectors is 33 per 100,000鈥攁head of policemen, construction workers, and miners.
Angel Veloz has been working in the waste and recycling industry for 17 years. He works at Waste Pro, one of the largest of the private companies that handle waste and recycling collection in the Southeast, and has won his company鈥檚 safety award several times. I talked to Veloz about what it鈥檚 like working in waste collection, and how he handles the dangers of his job. The interview that follows has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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