The Interest in the Refuse Industry by Jaccob Dalton

 

For the typical individual, an interest in sanitation trucks is unheard of. Cars, sports, social media, and photography all may come to mind as various interests. Not sanitation trucks; I’ve had a passion for sanitation trucks and the refuse industry all together for as long as I can remember, dating back to my younger days when I was a year old, watching the old Waste Management side loader service my house. It was something that was mesmerizing to me. I remember back in the early 1990’s when my parents would drive me around in our old beater Plymouth minivan to watch the uncontained bulk trash crews at work. This was a neat process to watch, having one operator drive the Kubota, and one drive the Rear Loader.

It was a quarterly process that I looked forward to.

This was before I knew about video cameras. In 2006, a site my older brother discovered known as YouTube launched. It was not popular, but it was a good place to catch a tune here and there. Typing in “garbage trucks” inside the search bar got me to a video by georgewuzheer, which featured sanitation trucks in Naples, Florida. Known as “Garbage Trucks Part 1” it still remains popular today, with five sequels. That was the first garbage truck video I watched on YouTube. I wondered if there were any from the Phoenix area at the time, and there wasn’t. After two years, I decided I wanted to create my own YouTube channel (JaccobDalton), in February 2008 to be able to comment and rate videos.

A few months later, I discovered the first garbage truck video from the Phoenix area, which featured the prototype SCORPION Automated Side Loader from DaDee Manufacturing. It was thrilling to be able to see another refuse truck manufacturer again locally in the Phoenix area, as the once older Heil Environmental plant that my father would take me to closed down.

I remember finding Paul Campbell’s (president of DaDee Manufacturing) email address on the Arizona Refuse Sales website (Arizona Refuse Sales is a dealer for DaDee Manufacturing), and asked him about the SCORPION Automated Side Loader, when I would see one service my neighborhood in Phoenix? Three years later, Patricia Ballentine (sales contract administrator of DaDee Manufacturing) sends me the first photo of one of four City of Phoenix SCORPION Automated Side Loaders. Coincidentally later that year, one ends up in my neighborhood, as the regular recycling route truck, and the rest is history.

My YouTube videos really took off from there, and today with over 3100 subscribers and over 3.1 million video views combined from over 350 videos, I still retain a regular audience for new videos. I’m not alone either. There are many other YouTube users that post videos of sanitation units in their neighborhood ranging from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California. I would like to recognize some particular individuals who share the same passion for the refuse industry as I do, as their videos have helped me better understand the refuse industry as a whole.

George Lanoszka “georgewuzheer” of Florida, Bill Tetreault “Shadofax96” of California, Scott

Watson “Trashman242” of California, Dejuan

McDaniel “ThaThunderStorm” of Georgia, Christian

Diaz “Garbage Trucks AZ” of Arizona, Ryan

Parsons“PooGobblingSloth” of Arizona, Lyon

Marcheschi “TheTrash153” of Arizona, Andrew Harmsen “legodude24652” of Arizona, Alan Blanchard

Jr. “FormerWMDriver” of Florida, Jake Beck “

GatorJake12” of Florida, Bryn Erdman “Thrash ‘N’ Trash

Productions” of Washington, Alan Yunt “West Coast Refuse Trucks” of Washington, Jared Martinson“ reuterhunter1”of Oregon, Connor “Virginia Refuse

Trucks” of Virginia, Torrey Harrison “Northern Virginia

Refuse” of Virginia, Aarron Deol “RempleDisposal” of

Delta, British Columbia, Jacob Wenhold “rws676” of Ohio, Eric Garcia“InternationalRLFan” of Illinois, Sean

Chotibut “Trashmaster684” of California, Michael Brennan “3amrepmike3” of California, Alex

Clemmans “Alex Clemmans” of California, Kenny

Andersen “KennysTrucks” of California, Tristen Pak

“Sanitation94 Videos” of California, David Van Wagner “Solid Waste Entertainment” of New Mex-ico, Chris Calabrese “KFCorBust” of Texas, & Tyler Gale “TheDFWTrashman” of Texas.

It’s a passion that has grown on many, and still is today. In June of 2014, I was hired at DaDee Manufacturing to be a part of the Sales Department. I couldn’t be happier and thankful for the opportunity. I look forward to an ambitious future with the company. I’m also going to college to obtain a bachelor’s degree of mechanical engineering to be able to completely understand the functionality of these refuse trucks.