SCRANTON — Business is picking up for trash collectors all across our area. The days after Christmas are traditionally the heaviest of the year.
After the gifts are unwrapped and the boxes are opened, after the parties and the dinners, the remnants wind up on the curb and it’s the job of the Scranton Public Works Department to take it all away. The days after Christmas are the most difficult of the year.
“It’s a little heavier from all the presents and cardboard and wrapping paper and everything,” Jeff Poveromo with the Scranton D.P.W.
Poveromo calls it just another day on the job, but a heavy day.
The weather helps a bit. It’s not brutally cold. Scranton’s Public Works Department can concentrate on getting rid of curbside trash rather than plowing and salting streets. The major issue is the volume. There’s a lot to lift.
“[Are you going to hurt more when you get home?] I’ll be sore probably. Yeah,” said Brian McHugh with the Scranton D.P.W.
On an average day, Scranton crews haul away about 14 tons of trash. On the days after Christmas, it goes up to more than 20 tons.
It’s two days after Christmas, and this is one of those days when you are liable to find anything out in the trash.
Newswatch 16 didn’t find a kitchen sink but did find a bathroom sink and furniture. It didn’t make a difference. Christmas debris and everything else was tossed in the back of the truck, destined for the landfill.
“I’m going to be very sore, very tired, ya know. I got my buddy here working with me, so we should be all right,” said Manny Johnson with the Scranton DPW.
Buddies help get the job done. Scranton D.P.W. has about a dozen trash trucks on the road with a crew of three on each: one driver and two doing the heavy lifting in the back.
Once this neighborhood is finished, they will go home, get cleaned up, rest, and do it all over again in another neighborhood on Wednesday.
