Municipal Garbage History: Los Angeles Department of Sanitation Founded 1957

Rob Jamieson took this picture in 1996 this is The City of Shaker Heights, Ohio Ford C model refuse truck. Now Shaker and the even still do this to this day I think, they have for whatever reason the curb sorter recycling box which is that orange box that loads from the side and that white thing up front is called a plastic compactor, now they have done away with the plastic compactors. Then the back is the garbage packer it's self.

Photo Rob Jamieson
Shaker now a days there trucks are Peterbilts and they have Loadmaster packer bodies not Pak Mores anymore.

Before there was Waste Management that we have today there was a company called USA Waste which bought out the burgandy brown Waste Management in 1998, but they kept the name Waste Management which is why Waste Managements logo is green and yellow, it's because of USA Waste. Anyhow this picture was taken in the early/middle 1990s this truck is a 31 yard rear loader, the private trash haulers down graded mostly to 25yarders and the reason being is because what happened was in the 1990s the DOT started getting serious about over weight and these 31 yard trucks some guys were out on routes and they were packing these trucks to 19.5 tons of pay load and were severely overweight. Eventually it got so bad they would paint a yellow line on the inside of the truck body and weather the route was up or not it didn't matter if you were full to the yellow line you had to go empty, because the routes were to big and everyone was running heavy. However, back in the day 1970s to, today the rear load packer trucks that was the beginning of the modern day high capacity rear loader. Just a little arbitrary garbage truck history.

 

I know the city run operations like the big trucks and like to run heavy and overweight. I don't know why the companies though bought trucks that would go way over weight. It doesn't make sense to me. The manufacturers probably figured there was some demand for it. Which is screwy in it's self, because in the 1980s when Leach was developing the legendary 2R2 they said they were trying to make the truck a little lighter or whatever, because I guess back at that time weight consciousness was starting to grip the industry.

But I've noticed more and more of the trucks are 25 yard trucks. City of Rocky River I think now only has (1) 32 yard truck and another 31 yard for leaves and yard waste and then everything else is 25 yard.

There marketing focus groups must have told them there was demand for this and then you know the companies probably thought we could have longer routes and bigger routes and then when someone hit the scale weighing it at 19.5 tons and they got a huge over weight ticket that all changed.

 

Yeah I guess USA Waste was a very strong company. They gobbled up Sanifill and a bunch of other outfits before buying out the old Waste Management. This Waste Management:

The Burgandy flying arrow they called it back in the day.

BFI was also another historic company big in the 1990s before it collapsed under its own weight.

 

They have a real racket going. Do they fine DSNY for all there over weight trucks?