Cleaning Up Portland
Trash hauler stays in shape with an on-the-job workout
"Every garbageman has his own system," Grant Helzer says of his preferred technique for tossing 55-pound cans of trash into the maw of Alberta Sanitary Service trucks. "I do it one-arm."
That's all wrong, according to the ergonomics people. But when he tried it their way last year, using two hands and lifting more with his legs, he heard a pop in his back and fell in agony to the ground. He was off his Northeast Portland route for two months.
Now Helzer, 33, sticks to the way he's been doing it since he was fresh out of Parkrose High School.
"I come from a long line of German garbagemen," he says.
Five generations of Helzers have been in the hauling business since Grant's great-great-grandfather Henry immigrated to Portland at the turn of the century before last. Grant's dad, Bill, owns and manages the business now, and still runs the routes three or four days a week, tossing cans from Northeast 16th to 33rd avenues between Fremont and Ainsworth streets.
To learn the business he'll assume one day, Grant works in the office three days a week with his mother and aunt, but he clearly enjoys the outdoor work more. He likes lifting the cans manually, eschewing hydraulic lifts that automate the garbage can toss it's taken him years to perfect.
"It's physically demanding," he admits of the work. But it keeps him well-muscled and trim.
"The fun of work is getting the workout," he says. "I couldn't handle being in the truck the whole shift."
He has a nodding acquaintance with many of the 3,300 customers whose garbage he hauls, although contact is a bit more remote now that the garbagemen collect cans from the curb instead of customer backyards. That changed in 1992, when the city standardized collection rules.
Customers still have several ways of dealing with their garbage, Helzer says, and that affects the smells he has to work with.
"In some areas, they like to bag it first; others drop it freely in the can -- we call it 'slop.' "
"This time of year, there's not a lot of smell" either way, he says. "Summer is a different matter."
That's all wrong, according to the ergonomics people. But when he tried it their way last year, using two hands and lifting more with his legs, he heard a pop in his back and fell in agony to the ground. He was off his Northeast Portland route for two months.
Now Helzer, 33, sticks to the way he's been doing it since he was fresh out of Parkrose High School.
"I come from a long line of German garbagemen," he says.
Five generations of Helzers have been in the hauling business since Grant's great-great-grandfather Henry immigrated to Portland at the turn of the century before last. Grant's dad, Bill, owns and manages the business now, and still runs the routes three or four days a week, tossing cans from Northeast 16th to 33rd avenues between Fremont and Ainsworth streets.
To learn the business he'll assume one day, Grant works in the office three days a week with his mother and aunt, but he clearly enjoys the outdoor work more. He likes lifting the cans manually, eschewing hydraulic lifts that automate the garbage can toss it's taken him years to perfect.
"It's physically demanding," he admits of the work. But it keeps him well-muscled and trim.
"The fun of work is getting the workout," he says. "I couldn't handle being in the truck the whole shift."
He has a nodding acquaintance with many of the 3,300 customers whose garbage he hauls, although contact is a bit more remote now that the garbagemen collect cans from the curb instead of customer backyards. That changed in 1992, when the city standardized collection rules.
Customers still have several ways of dealing with their garbage, Helzer says, and that affects the smells he has to work with.
"In some areas, they like to bag it first; others drop it freely in the can -- we call it 'slop.' "
"This time of year, there's not a lot of smell" either way, he says. "Summer is a different matter."
Sources
Tripp, Julie. "Cleaning Up Portland." The Oregonian [Portland] 26 Dec. 2005: Print.
Last updated November 12, 2016.