Recycling

Recycle Day has been Recycled.

Since Thursday was the Thanksgiving Holiday, our regular Friday Recycle Day has been moved to Saturday. The driver came around early and missed most of the containers on the right side of the street because the residents didn't yet have their cans out of their garages. They scrambled and brought their containers out and put them on the left side of the street resulting in this unique lineup.

Note the truck emptying one of the containers. The mechanical hand and arm lifts, dumps, and returns the can in about a 3 to 4 second interval. Only one man, the driver is needed. He will move to the next can in about 20 seconds. Previously with the old rear-load trucks three men were needed, the driver and two loaders, and the can to can cycle was almost 60 seconds. So with the new truck 20 man-seconds are needed while the old truck required 180 man-seconds. This quickly amortizes the cost of a $200,000 new truck.

Where have all the jobs gone? This is one answer.

In the 1920's Uncle Bill had a job putting up telephone poles. The holes were dug by hand using long-handled post-hole diggers. About 50 men would pick up the pole, set the butt in the hole and raise the pole by hand, using pike poles to extend their reach. Now a large mechanical screw digs the hole, an arm with a clamp picks up the pole, positions it and lowers it into the hole. The truck has a crew of probably three men.

Where have all the jobs gone? This is another answer.