“The world of waste revealed itself to me just as I hope it will reveal itself to you in this book—as a surprise. A happy coincidence, because I love this work. By telling my story, I want to share my passion. I want to bring garbage collectors out of obscurity. Above all, I want you to stop believing that your trash disappears by magic, as the very recent 1-800-GOT-JUNK ad suggests. Nothing disappears by magic. Let’s leave those illusions to children and return to the real world—beautiful and dirty, just like garbage collectors.”

As you read this garbage collector’s diary, you’ll discover a world you never knew existed. A gathering of eccentrics and characters more or less integrated into normal life who work on the fine line between what our society considers clean and what it deems dirty. Who are these athletes who run through our streets every week behind garbage trucks, whether it’s snowing, raining, or too hot? What is their perspective on composting, recycling, and reuse? What do they have to say about an era that generates an abundance of trash? These are just some of the questions answered in this captivating story.