HE'S A COLLECTOR OF SORTS: BAGS AND CANS

CAPE GIRARDEAU - With 1,500 to 2,000 pickups being made each day, no city employee is more regularly in contact with residents of Cape Girardeau than a sanitation worker.

Unless roads are snow covered, or it's so cold the truck's hydraulic system won't work, five times a week employees of the sanitation department follow a route around the city picking up trash set at the curbs by residents. Trash is picked up twice a week, and on Wednesdays special pickups are made at curbside of items that are too large to put in trash bags or cans.

Sanitation worker William Mitchell has lived in Cape Girardeau five years and has worked with the department 16 months. The job offers Mitchell steady work.

"I like the job because I get a lot of exercise, and it pays well," said Mitchell, 31. "It keeps the bills paid."

Working for a sanitation department is nothing new for Mitchell; his father had his own trash-collecting business in St. Louis and he grew up working in the business.

Explaining his job titles of loader and back-up driver, Mitchell called ("Mitch") by co-workers said that as a loader he rides on the back of the truck until it arrives at a residence. He then picks up trash bags or cans and dumps the trash into the truck, which moves on. Mitchell is also responsible for operating the blade that pushes trash into the truck and compacts its.

"It is a pretty durable crusher," said Mitchell. "It will crush just about anything; it might even crush a car."

After about three-fourths of the route has been completed, the truck is unloaded at the city transfer station and the remainder of the route is run. Before ending their day's work, they make another stop at the transfer station to unload.

A sanitation worker's day begins at 6 a.m. and ends around 2:30 p.m., although it can be longer if weather conditions are bad or the trash is exceptionally heavy. Mitchell pointed out that Mondays and Tuesdays are generally the heavy days because people have weekend trash to dispose of.

Because of the many stops made each day and the variety of weather conditions they must work in, safety is a major concern. "It is dangerous if it is wet or slick and if people have too much trash in cans or bags and they are overweight; you can get hurt lifting it," said Mitchell.

"And on main roads like Perryville Road or Kingshighway, traffic is a problem," he said. Dogs also can be a problem, said Mitchell. "They will bite," he explained.

On days when the regular truck driver is not at work, Mitchell drives. The driver is responsible for looking out for the loaders and plays an important role in their safety. "You have to really watch where you are going, and the driver toots his horn to let you know a car is coming from the blind side," said Mitchell.

Each residence is limited to three trash cans or six bags. If a bag is too heavy or is broken open, the loaders leave a tag on the bag explaining why it was not taken and contact the sanitation department by radio to report why it was not picked up.

One of the frustrating things about the job, said Mitchell, is: "Sometimes people buy the cheapest bags and put in the heaviest stuff. The bags bust open and you have to stand there and pick it up, and that wastes a lot of time. If a bag busts on us, we have to stop and clean it up because we made the mess."

Mitchell advised people that if they have a trash bag full of heavy things like magazines, it is best to put the bag in a can.

Because not everything people throw away is "trash," Mitchell said there are opportunities to find items like shoes, jackets, pictures and other things that are discarded. "You don't have a lot of time, but, if you see it, you can get it and set it aside," explained Mitchell. "But you don't have time to go digging through the trash."

Driving through neighborhoods, he said, also gives him an opportunity to find cars for sale that he might be interested in or to alert his wife to prime yard sales.

Sanitation workers also do their part for the overall good of the city by reporting to the office any problems they see such as damaged power lines, vines and limbs that need to be trimmed, potholes, and even accidents. Also, since their routes take them not only down streets but through alleys, they can often find problems the street department is not aware of.

Mitchell said, except for rain, there's not much bad about his job. "Being outdoors is nice as long as it's not raining. I can stand the cold and the heat, but rain ... I don't much like," said Mitchell. When it rains, workers are issued rainsuits and rubber gloves, but it's still a miserable experience, he said.

Eventually, Mitchell hopes to become a regular driver. He said he would get less exercise, but there are still plenty of times when drivers get out and help load trash. "Driver is the best job because you don't get wet and you don't get cold; but you do get hot when it is hot because there's no air conditioning in the truck."

Mitchell said he is content with his job and may be with the sanitation department for a long time. "I plan on being here for a while," said Mitchell.