People Who Fight Pollution (1971)

well people today think it's easy to be a rubbish man but to me and a lot of people in the business is being a doctor of garbology the trash must go through that's my motto because we have no holidays I myself work Christmas Day Thanksgiving Day because the rubbish has to go you leave it set one day that's one days more rubbish you're gonna have to pick up off the ground I'm an independent rubbish man I do not work for the city I'm not franchised out to anybody and I run my company the way I feel is deficient [Music] I'm an air pollution inspector my job is to uncover sources of air pollution control it where possible and eliminate it if I can and that's a big job that's why I like it well I came from rural town in Texas the air smell like pine needles is a lot of pine trees in my part of Texas and I missed the smell quite a bit I missed the smells of spring the smells of bottom as well as the smells of summer and I would imagine the children all born here they don't miss it because they never had it bottles is my business now years before ecology became the thing to do I was recycling bottles of not because we was looking for any glory to me it was just the thing to do to keep garbage from piling up a few years ago people used to laugh at me when I told them that I made new bottles out of old bottles but they don't laugh at me anymore [Applause] [Applause] sometimes a trash bin will weigh only thousand pounds up to a ton sometimes it's like a challenge because you have to learn how to lift something in order not to damage your body it's better training than going out on the football field and training with the players so many of my relatives are in the rubbish business it's actually hard to just pick them all up at one time and think about it my grandfather's back when he first came to this country he started up in the rubbish business was just a horse and buggy and then my uncle's did the same thing eventually we just hand it down when my father got out of this service he went into the rubbish business because this was his ID and this would he knew my business I was able to walk and talk I always wanted to get out there and do what he was doing I just loved to get out there and work [Music] [Music] all the rubbish men are like one big group and like you can go to every rubbish company you can find if I don't help you because they really stick together they do I'm always going to you guys when he broke that you come right by and get it okay I'll take care of it you get a set up for me and what I do for you okay cuz I'll take the contract along with this one okay okay I'll do that right I go to smoke school to train my eyes to look at smoke to tell whether it's violating the law or not until you get the hang of it smoke just looks like smoke that's why the smoke school test is so tough on your favorite I'll ring the bell congratulations thanks ma'am path and smoke school means I can testify in court against polluters but I gotta catch him first 640 100 Salt Lake Avenue kind of Hey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the stack by mistake sampling from the smokestacks so they can be later analyzed and laboratory this helps the company that's guilty to changes processes so it can stop polluting [Music] let's write one on this side piling up pretty heavy up there when I first started working around the furnaces they kind of scared me I thought maybe one false move and I'd be made into a bottle after being around the furnaces for so many years I feel right at home around [Music] you're working around furnaces you become part of that furnace they're like children to you you look at them you take care of you cuddle them actually there's more truth than that in for a treat [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the kids got together including my own side to clean up the neighborhood I came along to watch things and have a body in the way I could [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] I take the broken bottles and deliver them to the furnaces when the glass is just the right temperature I give it to the machines and when the machines take over that's sort of like the fourth of July [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I made over a million bottles today it was one of our slower days but it's not bad [Music] well it's a good day and everything's going right for you out there you seem to pick up the rhythm and you're on top of the world [Applause] in these big apartments the trash bins get so full I have to get up there and jump on a real odo and get the janitors to give me a hand pushing them off people are just throwing useful things in the trash bin and just forgetting about them and that's pollution [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well I can go out in a day on my route and I can learn a lot about people by just their trash they dispose though like material and stuff they didn't use food they didn't eat they just disposed of it and they don't give it a second time [Music] [Applause] it just breaks my heart to see what people throw away every day I find something new something very curious interesting [Music] [Music] [Laughter] a lot of people seem to think that the machines made the flowers but we've kind of like to feel that we made them ourselves [Music] I get kind of a cape pick up the bottles and take a look on the bottom to see if that's one of them that I made go along take a look and tip it over to see if old plant 23 is on the bottom look upon myself as being more of a Salesman than a cop really I'm trying to sell an idea of let's do something about the pollution in our air number six I didn't run on the test he put some Kansas quite anxious to seal at number six hello little problems with us get it all squared away oh and the not-too-distant future that won't be any need for people of hole jobs like I got you may say I'm just working myself out of a job I don't look at it that way I look at it as something that needs to be done and it has to be done now my children may be surprised to know they were born in a very very beautiful Valley and we're just hoping that they are will get clean enough someday they'll be able to see it [Music] I'm not depressed over the whole thing it's gonna take determination we're getting there